Michael Whitty

Professor Peter Schaefer

Reading Quiz #1

3 July 2020

Communal Liveness

In response to Philip Auslander’s excerpt discussing the relationship between liveness

and mediatization, I found his explanation of live performance captivating. He states that live

performance to be “a fuller sensory experience than mediatized performances” (Auslander). As

a musician myself, performing live in front of an engaged audience can become a full sensory

experience. Where the artist is engaging the mind, body, and spirit in the community around

them. After watching the live performance of Patrick Bruel’s “J’te I’dis quand même” I was

entranced by the participation of the audience. Initially starting the song himself, Bruel gave way

to the audience bursting out in song. When I pay attention to his face, I can get a glimpse into

what this full sensory feeling must be like for him. He is not only in awe of the audience who

knows the words to his song but in a more realistic sense, in the perplexity of the audience’s

communal ‘liveness’ that he initiated. This communal aspect lost in regards to the pandemic that

I understand a lot of music lovers and concertgoers miss, as I also do myself. There is a sense of

community created in a live performance space because not only is the artist singing the words

and melody to their song, but the audience is engaging by singing along as if they were up on

stage with the artist--it’s quite an intimate experience.

Auslander explains that in today’s modern society, there has been an overlap between

mediatization and liveness. His theory suggests the two are products of one another, but more
specifically, mediatization is a product of liveness. Starting before most artists and performers

had any access to a mediatized performance, they were forced into a live, more acoustic set.

However, once the media became another realm of creative expression, artists found a way to

express their music through the media in a way that provokes more feelings of liveness and this

‘sensory experience’ previously discussed. I believe there is an importance in the mediatization

of live performance because, as a theatre lover myself, there is an aspect of live performance

alongside the mediatization that exemplifies creativity to another level. It kind of entrances

audiences more and makes them believe they are a part of a sensory art exhibit. This experience

furthers Auslander’s point of how mediatization and liveness go hand and hand. The live

performance brings olfactory, tactile, somatic, and kinesthetic sense to the forefront. Adding

media to the mix will work together with the visual and auditory sense of a mediatized

performance.

I believe Philip Auslander would find the performance of Patrick Bruel in his tour of

France in 1990-1991 to be a perfect example as to why live performance can create a beautifully

creative and communal space for liveness. The vulnerability of the audience, capable of singing

along in a way that comes out of excitement and happiness, projects onto the stage towards

Patrick Bruel in a way this is unlike any other live experience. With little form of mediatization

in his performance, emphasis relied upon Bruel and a piano excelling the concert along within

the company and community of the audience. This is to be believed in Auslander’s except as a

pure definition behind liveness.