Audience Engagement Platform

A lot of people have been asking me how, as an dance artist, have I become interested in technology and software creation. The way I see it, there are two main types of ways that technology intersects with the arts:

1) in creating access and ways of experiencing the art and

2) as part of the art itself.

Today I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the first, and write more about the second at a later time.

I am both very interested in artistic creation itself, and in the ways that audiences connect with it, and are impacted by it. I believe that audiences are inherently co-producers, in that they bring their own history and ways of seeing to the art as they experience it. Since there are many different kinds of people seeing any single work of art, I aim to create multiple access points which people can choose to augment their overall experience. These are ways that individuals can gain access to the art, creation process, and to the community around the art. Technology provides ways for artists to extend and manage these exchanges for their audiences, which has driven my interest in making the web easier for myself, and for other artists to use.

While I haven’t stopped choreographing for more that six months at a time since I was 14 years old, my undergraduate degree was actually in Public Policy, focusing on federal level involvement in the arts and education. In addition, I spent a lot of time taking and being a teaching assistant for computer science classes, and worked in the Brown University Computer Graphics research group. I started to recognize how creative software programming could be, and even to see some parallels to the choreographic process. While I haven’t personally written software code for years, these above experiences fed my familiarity with and interest in applying the smart use of technology to helping artists on a systems level to involve audiences in realizing their artistic visions.

As the founder of a small dance company in NYC, I experience first-hand the challenges of managing the company, alongside creating art. My interest is to engage our audiences around both the artistic and production process, so that they can feel closer to the experience, and so that artists can both deepen their impact on audiences and benefit from the partnership of audiences in helping to support the growth of their work.

Yes, managing a software development process is quite different from being in the dance studio. But at core, building AEP is about furthering the mission of our artistic work, to create deeper impact on our audiences and to progress the art.

–Chris

Chris Elam
Artistic Director
Misnomer Dance Theater
www.misnomer.org

Jul. 7, 2010, Filed under category Program info

Hey everybody, Chris Elam here, and I wanted to talk a little bit about my recent experience performing and speaking at TedxEast. Are you familiar with the Tedx series? TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission of “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations, and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. At TEDx events, unique talks given by live speakers combine with TEDTalks videos to spark conversation and connections.

Speaking at TEDx was amazing. I’m a huge fan of the TED video series, and knew that what I shared during my presentation would be viewed by a really large audience from a broad range of backgrounds. I wanted to bring attention to the subject of how we as audiences and artists shape our relationships to the arts, and the opportunities to co-produce and collaborate as active cultural participants. That’s one of the main points of why we wanted to create AEP, and it was an honor to spread the word about the great movement that artists are taking to give audiences more involvement. I was one of seven speakers at the event, including great talks by the founder of MeetUp.com and the CEO of GroundReport.com

It was particularly exciting to perform my dance solo “Cast Iron Crutches” for the audience before I spoke. I think there was something magical in preparing people to talk about the interaction between art and technology by allowing them to see the art and then hear from the artist immediately after. It was a thrilling challenge to dance a 5-minute solo and then change out of my costume in 20 seconds and go directly into speaking for another 5 minutes!  My heart was beating quickly during the talk from having just danced, but that’s live performance, and part of the charm which the audience seemed to enjoy. I’m glad the video captured both live, and I hope you enjoy watching it here:

-Chris

May. 24, 2010, Filed under category Program info

We are busy preparing AEP. As we continue to develop the platform we look for opportunities to share the concepts behind AEP to gain input from the field on what we are building. Chris Elam, the founding Artistic Director of Misnomer Dance Theater, is speaking about AEP at the Dance Forum 2010 Friday in NYC. You can read about it here.

Jan. 7, 2010, Filed under category Program info

What is AEP?
AEP – or the Audience Engagement Platform – is an innovative web-based communications network that is being designed to connect performing artists, and the environments within which they work, with their audiences – patrons, contributors, the media, and potential funders. It aims to be a “one-stop” service for online audience engagement that builds off of the extraordinary technical advances utilized in the commercial and social sectors.  AEP is designed as a long-term, arts-wide solution that will facilitate meaningful and productive two-way interaction between those who create art and those who appreciate it.

Who Does It Serve?
A resource to the creative community as well as those who support the arts, AEP will help artists to actively engage their audiences in an on-going dialogue about the work being created, providing the opportunity for arts enthusiasts to go behind the scenes and actually participate in the creative process. In addition, because of its reach, AEP aims to help captivate and cultivate arts donors, maximize media coverage, and provide an unprecedented communication network, going far beyond the traditional confines of artist and audience and in some ways, re-defining what it means to be an audience.

Why Is It Needed?
Over 40% of all Americans attend performing arts events each year and there are over 6 million artists working in America. While each interacts with his/her own audience base perhaps once or twice a year, their cumulative reach is enormous. Artists have a huge opportunity to engage their audiences through the web, yet with uncertainty about which tools to use and to what degree, artists often feel stranded, frustrated, and static in their audience outreach.  AEP will simplify and streamline the various online vehicles available, and create effective and efficient ways of engaging and growing audiences. For audiences it will provide unprecedented and meaningful ways to feel close and involved as a partner in the arts.

How Does It Work?
For artists, arts organizations and theaters, AEP will provide an easy-to-use set of web tools that can be customized to their needs, offering a built-in customer relationship management database, messaging, and incentives center. This platform provides the ability to mobilize audiences, inviting them to engage with the arts as active partners. This synthesis occurs through innovative web interactions that allow emailing, blogging, live-streaming, instant messaging and much more to occur all through one portal. AEP aims to virtually transport the user directly into the creative process, allowing arts enthusiasts to interact with the artists in ways never before imagined.

Download the AEP brochure (PDF)

Initial funding toward the development of the Audience Engagement Platform is provided in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Nonprofit Finance Fund, and The Rockefeller Foundation.

Oct. 31, 2009, Filed under category Program info