A recent NYT piece on the endurance (and remaking) of Deadhead culture since 1995, has some great audience shots by photographer Peter Fisher.

Between that and Paul McCartney's new book, featuring photographs he took of fans and paparazzi while on tour in 1964, there is a bonanza of new audience images to study.

#audiencestudies #gratefuldead #paulmccartney #beatles #historicalphotographs
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/arts/music/dead-and-company-final-tour.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

New example for the history of aberrant concert audiencing: an unexpected cry amidst a performance of Tchaikovsky. On the surface, it rubs against expectations for reverent attention to the work. Or does it? Was the response sexual? sensual? narcoleptic? musical? Can we identify the ecstatic individual from the crowd? Did the musicians, in turn, break from their collective role? Is everyone ok? #audience #AudienceStudies #ConcertEtiquette #MusicReception

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-04-30/la-phil-concert-orgasm-twitter-tchaikovsky

Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies has a new web site: https://www.participations.org.

Launched in 2003 by Professor Martin Barker, its open access and open refereeing made it a unique and welcoming scholarly platform for scholars in a still-growing interdisciplinary field. There is a lot of good thinking in the back issues; I'm looking forward to its next 20 years!

#AudienceStudies #Participations #ReceptionStudies

I am loving Smithsonian Open Access, especially its collections of audience images. Check out this 1865 wood-engraving from Winslow Homer: "Our Watering Places--Horse Racing at Saratoga." The excitement and dynamism of the audience in the grandstands, as the racers go by, is palpable, rendered with multidirectional contrasts of light, pattern, and bodily detail. #AudienceStudies #AudienceHistory #HorseRacing #WinslowHomer

One of my favorite photos from my ongoing research historical audiences: a proto-audience of engineering students, assembled to test weight-bearing structures for stadiums and theaters. C. C. Schneider, “The Structural Design of Buildings.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Paper No. 997: 442.

#audiencehistory #crowds #audiencestudies #architecturalhistory #stadiumarchitecture #theaterarchitecture

Also posted to https://www.instagram.com/ardentaudience/