Creators and Audiences, Speakers and Listeners

In this Interintellect Salon, Indy Neogy asks if the brave new world of the internet is still reproducing old hierarchies of interaction.

The hot new app of the moment – Clubhouse – replicates a very standard arrangement: speakers on the dais, listeners sat below and literally mute. Are we reproducing something here? What might be?

We know the internet has opened vast possibilities for more people than ever to be creators, rather than just an audience. Yet at the same time the structures that have developed seem to still embed certain hierarchies. For example:

– Creator vs audience
– Presenting vs conversing
– Blogging vs commenting
– Leaders vs followers

We won’t be asking if participation is important because it is. In this Salon we’ll be asking:

– What makes for good participation in various settings?
– What key skills of participation may be overlooked?
– How might the balance between these polarities be maintained?
– How might we value participation as well as creation?
– Do we need “followership” as well as “leadership”?

Links to look at before the event:

– The Wages Of Attention

– Extremely speculative piece on “attention bonds” (monetary)

– Evolving Role of the Audience in Live Theatre

– On Listening

– On Interviewing – Terry Gross

– On Followership

– On Exit, Voice, Loyalty