Arts in an Age of Technology

I was getting my 80s fix on YouTube watching Kate Bush’s video for “Running Up That Hill.” Even though the song is fairly old in MTV years, the comments section was very active with responses as recent as an hour before I viewed the piece. (Which serves to confirm that I have good taste in music.)

The video features a lot of modern dance (which was probably even more modern in 1985). While I imagine most everyone was coming for the music, I was trying to think if there was a way to have a high rate of success in juxtaposing a little arts performance with something a lot of people wanted to watch/listen to on YouTube. For every coolness factor I could think of, there was a possible negative influence that would suck the cool right out so I am not quite sure what the answer is.

While looking around YouTube to see if any other dance companies had put anything intriguing up, I found an interesting effort by the Cincinnati Ballet. The have posted YouTube video contests corresponding to each one of their shows. Each video asks you to cast a vote between three possible choices and when you do, you get $10 off a ticket to that show.

The most recent contest had people voting to decide which of three slobs turned suave would get to take the artistic director to the ballet. Over 3500 people voted which isn’t too bad a result. I would be interested to know how many of those who voted weren’t regular attendees. Even if they didn’t end up going to the show, they visited the ballet’s website which is a good first step.

You can take a look at some of their earlier episodes here. My personal feeling is that they did a good job for a first time out. I didn’t like the textures applied to the Twyla Tharpe video because it made it hard to watch. The “Smackdown Ballet Style” was a fun idea to promote Bolero but I think it went on a little too long to engage an curious new attendee’s interest.

The one I liked the best was the “Nutty Dance” where three people from the community (music reporter, musician and vice mayor) were pitted against each other trying to do a segment from The Nutcracker. Each did a credible job and put their own stamp on the piece.

Remembering some of the first music videos on MTV back in the 80s, I don’t fault them for the somewhat rough first attempts. I salute them for their imagination and initiative and hope they and others will work to refine their technique in using tools like YouTube to promote their work. I am betting these clever folks devise an entirely different approach to marketing their product altogether.

It is not everyday that I get an email from Switzerland, especially one asking me to promote a performance that is in turn promoting the release of a Swiss watch. I gave a snort of derision of some corporation trying to get me to help them advertise their product. I hardly believed the subject line that implied the release was an exclusive for my blog.

But I have to emit a beleaguered sigh, grit my teeth and help the watch makers out in the process of admitting there might be something to be learned from their approach.

The event is the virtual performance of Kevin Spacey in The Interrogation of Leo and Lisa on May 16. The International Watch Company is launching a new Da Vinci line so the show is about Da Vinci and Mona Lisa. Along with a short blurb about the show were some photos for my use in any post I might make about the performance.

It is not outside the realm of imagination that we will see more of this type of event where delivery of a performance over the internet is underwritten by a single sponsor with a related product to sell. BMW had their online film series not so long ago doing the same thing.

I was torn about whether I should wait to post on this until after the play premiered online, thereby blunting whatever promotional benefit my entry might provide IWC. But I also thought it important to give people the opportunity to assess how well the premiere is executed.

Right now the links to the Play and Making Of videos are not active but will presumably have content on the 16th. You can access still photos of the performance right now. According to a number of articles I found online, the show was taped at the SIHH Watch Fair where it was performed at the gala. Although the IWC website doesn’t clearly indicate it, other articles covering the premiere noted that it can be viewed at 4 p.m. Central European Time, 7 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 10 p.m. Japan Standard Time.

A few interesting things to note if you are going to try this yourself. The website has mechanisms whereby you can remind yourself and tell friends, two features that are pretty much de rigueur on websites offering any type of information and services these days.

Their online program book has been translated into 10 languages, including two versions of Chinese. Granted the watch company has a more diverse audience and greater resources than most theatres. I suspect that in the future, much sooner than later in many parts of the U.S., providing information in multiple languages is going to be de rigueur itself in the pursuit of removing barriers to attendance.

There are many larger questions this whole situation raises like is there any point to taping a live performance? Is the format too much like TV for those who love the live experience and too limited for those who prefer the special effects possible with TV and film?

Is there some element of live performance the camera can capture that makes it worth taping? If so, then why aren’t recorded performances more popular? Do the camera people need to film from more exciting angles rather than straight on? If so, won’t the crouching cameramen interfere with the enjoyment of the live audience?

What I would really be interested in seeing is if the video of the performance is available outside of those time slots. It would be rather ironic if a watch company sponsored an event that you didn’t have to be prompt to participate in. If it is available at other times, was there really any value in generating a buzz to get people to watch on May 16? If it were Spiderman 3 being released, people would certainly flock. Kevin Spacey grilling historical figures probably doesn’t have as great a draw.

Just because it isn’t outside the realm of imagination that we will see more of this sort of thing doesn’t necessarily mean it is an idea with long term viability. Still the whole effort bears watching in order to ask these questions which all stem from a central question of Should We Consider Doing This and What Will It Look Like If We Do?

My recent entries on the statistical analysis and general content of the Knight Foundation Magic of Music Final Report has gotten me thinking quite a bit lately.

I am looking forward to the report the Rand Institute produces about their study of the creation of effective arts education programs for children. I am wondering if they will present any findings about the effect of the programs on learning and the students’ lives.

One of the things I have been wondering about is the impact of modeled behavior on much debated meaning of the statistic claiming that 74% of orchestra ticket buyers had played an instrument or sung at some point in their lives.

The music department at my college holds about two choral concerts a year to which the director invites community and school choral groups to participate. This is not a competition and is programmed for balanced content. The event usually starts and ends with performances by the college groups.

Inevitably, many friends and family come just for the performance of their loved ones and then depart, sometimes paying to see someone sing for 20 minutes. Often people arrive 90 minutes into the performance having missed the first time their loved one sang–or missing them altogether. This is the case for friend/family of middle/high schoolers and college students alike.

It is entirely common to see parents taking their children home immediately after the performance. (Shades of the Joshua Bell/Tasmin Little experiments. Perhaps there is something to the claim of parents dragging kids away!-scroll down to words “The Second Issue”).

I wonder if the parents of the people surveyed by the Knight Foundation supported their activities and encouraged them to attend performances aligned with their interests when they weren’t performing themselves. (Though granted, the survey question encompasses people’s entire lives which might also include college glee club and church choir, etc).

So I likewise wonder if participation in these activities by young people today will have as strong an influence in attendance (if it does) as it did on previous generations. If parents are giving their kids the message that other people’s performances don’t warrant attention, the students may not be motivated to hone their skill or appreciation by watching another. They may also not feel that their performances have any value to the general public since so many people exit between groups. Finally, they may not have any interest in seeing someone else perform when they reach adulthood.

I have a suspicion that the Rand report on arts education may find that truly effective programs have a strong element of parental investment if they think to factor that in. Though parental support won’t necessarily resolve this problem. Many of the students I have seen get a lot of support and encouragement from family and friends making it necessary for us to shush the loud photo sessions in the lobby during the performance prior to going home.

What is interesting to me is that after 6-8 of these concerts, I have never heard anyone complain about the shifting audiences. If people are focussed on paying attention only to their loved ones, they don’t seem to be insisting that others do so as well. It would be interesting to know if this behavior and expectations of the rest of the audience is specific to the local culture or if various regions of the country act differently.

Over at Adaptistration, its Take A Friend to the Orchestra Month (TAFTO). I am not writing this year, but I am participating in a sense. The orchestra will be performing in the theatre I run.

Drew prefaced today’s entry with a promise that it would wow readers with the concepts it was presenting. I have to say it certainly did for me. Bill Harris of Facilitated Systems creates a computer model to test if Drew’s TAFTO program is beneficial for orchestras in comparison with paid advertising.

Now since he is dealing with statistics and computer programs, it isn’t the easiest of reads. On my first read through I absorbed enough to realize it was providing enough valuable insights to read through again a couple hours later. If I understand correctly, one can copy the program he has written and use it in the simulator he suggests to produce results specific to ones organization.

I was intrigued by all this so I followed a link back to Bill’s blog and came across an entry on the Knight Foundation’s Magic of Music Final Report. Not two weeks ago I had cited a portion of the finding of this report to a group and now I see Mr. Harris telling people to be careful about the conclusions they drew from it.

He quote from page 32 of the report-

In trying to profile the factors that might predict a ticket buyer, one statistic stood out: 74 percent of them had played an instrument or sung in a chorus at some time in their lives.

What he says this appears to be saying is,”the probability of someone having played an instrument or sung in a group, given that they were a ticket purchaser, was 0.74.”

But what he says you really want to know is the probability that someone will buy a ticket “given that they played an instrument or sang in a group.” That may be what you assumed the report was saying because you hope that people who play instruments and sing (or perform in a play, paint, etc) will patronize your organization.

My assumption about the findings in the Knight report was that people who had music in their background might be inclined to attend later in life, but I didn’t see a cause and effect relationship. It merely seemed that people with a musical background shared were an affinity group within symphony attendees.

However, under the suspicion that inclination to attend wasn’t any different than cause and effect assumption, I posted a comment to Harris’ latest blog entry asking if I was making an erroneous assumption.

We shall see what he says. In the meantime, the lesson here is to read those statistics with a careful, critical eye.