Liveness 4.0: a new paradigm for accessibility at music festivals.

Bossey, Adrian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9874-6323 (2023) Liveness 4.0: a new paradigm for accessibility at music festivals. In: Virtual Events Management. Goodfellow Publishers, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-915097-03-3 (Submitted)

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Abstract / Summary

There are growing demands for the music festival industry to significantly enhance inclusivity for a range of audiences. This includes increasing accessibility for people who are Deaf or disabled. The use of Information Communication Technologies (‘ICT’) is becoming increasingly central to the way in which many audiences experience music festivals. While digitising performances is contentious, COVID-19 stimulated a proliferation of digitised live music content generation. Audience engagement with remote content may extend to content generated at on-site music festivals and this is likely to be more popular if it is perceived to be authentic as a live experience. ICT offers some potential to increase accessibility to live musical performances. However, ICT needs to be sensitively deployed when supplementing ‘as live’ content, to avoid “any risk of creating new instances of exclusion at music festivals” (Bossey, 2020: 22).
This chapter analyses existing literature and builds on previous enquiry to inform conceptual research, which can represent “a powerful means of theory building” (Jaakkola 2020: 18) to connect concepts together relationally (Reese, 2022). In doing so it responds to a recommendation from Wilson et al., (2017: 206) that “festival studies embrace greater methodological diversity”. The author considers liveness, authenticity, communitas and performance futures in relation to ICT enhanced content generated by music festivals to improve accessibility for people who are Deaf or disabled. Responding to “Industry 4.0” (Schwab, 2016) a new conceptualisation of ‘liveness 4.0’ is proposed to incorporate the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The chapter further questions whether a new paradigm of ‘liveness 4.0’ is required to consider audience experiences facilitated by emerging ICT, which aim to increase accessibility for people who are Deaf or disabled at music festivals.
A case study on the Beat Blocks haptic flooring system is included as a novel example of developing accessibility at events. This considers respondent’s perceptions of liveness in relation to a range of viewpoints and perceptions of liveness, authenticity and communitas regarding haptic flooring technology.

Item Type:	Book Section
ISBN:	978-1-915097-03-3
Subjects:	Business
Depositing User:	Adrian Bossey
Date Deposited:	14 Aug 2023 14:25
Last Modified:	14 Aug 2023 14:25
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/4953

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