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: AEME Forum, 6 July 2023, University of Gloucester.

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Abstract / Summary

There are growing demands for the music festival industry to significantly increase 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. Audience engagement with ICT enhanced content is likely to 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 presentation analyses existing literature and builds on previous research to inform a conceptual article, which connect concepts together relationally (Reese 2022: 3) and can represent “a powerful means of theory building” (Jaakkola 2020: 18). The presenter 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: 12) a new conceptualisation of ‘liveness 4.0’ is proposed to incorporate the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The research addresses the thesis that: A new paradigm of liveness is required to move beyond co-located audience experiences facilitated by ICT from the Third Industrial Revolution, 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 by example. This considers respondent’s perceptions of liveness in relation to a range of viewpoints and perceptions of liveness, authenticity and communitas in relation to the haptic flooring technology.

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