Long time no see….. Thanks for your report. You may find the political writings of Chantal Mouffe useful to your reflections. Her book “The Democratic Paradox” is rich and an essay in that book “For an Agonistic Model of Democracy” so smart. It has become an important touch-point to my work. A few years back I wrote for NPN about a key concept in her agonistic model, the work of creating a “chain of equivalences” and how it intersect with cultural policy formation and articulations – arguing that it doesn’t.

Artists have been rubbing up with the idea of agonism for awhile and I’m so glad to hear about the Walker symposium and I look forward to spending time on the website. As to cultural policy I find that the field is dominated by technocrats and they are so busy with constructing complicity and looking at how agonism operates in our sector is avoided. Most recently I’ve been looking at how race and racism operates in our sector – an “opposite” often treated as an threatening “opposition” to the white racial frame that exist as the norm in field. How I wish the sector would embrace agonism and even more so…take up the work of creating equivalences that knows how to work with differences of opinions, world-views, strategies.

Again thanks for your words

Best

Roberto

My worry with (re)naming all this as ‘experience management’ is that it moves this work into the realm of experience economy and identifies it with packaging everything into entertaining, consumable commodities. I’d rather think about it in terms of respecting, being interested, and caring about the visitors. But I guess we might still be talking about the same thing.

While organizations may not have the resources to hire a Chief Experience Officer (personally, I like the idea) a small step forward would be for artistic, marketing and development staff to work together on choosing the work that is presented. I’m working with an organization that’s starting to do this more than in the past. So far, the conversations are richer and staff is more engaged in the process. In addition, organizations must continually collect data and information about the attitudes and behaviors of their audiences in order to engage them in more meaningful ways.

I think of this topic, all the time. The feel of the experience. Where does it start? where does it end? and what is the actual content or happening of the experience you are attending, or part of. People use the word vibe or energy. But that vibe or energy can be made. It all lies in the details. If one concludes that there is a happening that can be produced. A talent, a performance of any sort. Then the rest is what makes it or breaks it. how is that information gotten to you? Is there live tangible connection to the advertisement? The world of Social Media lends to this. Marketing is no longer 1-2 dimensional. The world of print is barely there but for the reminders. The post cards local artists hand out are the pin ups on our fridges and cork boards to remind us that we have interest. Ad’s of any sort do the same. Oh, yeah I remember seeing them, and look they are in town again. But the live clips, and event postings and personal shout outs to fans, and community is what makes the new world of Advertising work. That is the start. That is where the first feel comes in. Then is location of course, and venue, how your accepted into the community, venue and treated through out the event. There isn’t enough time right now in my life or lines in this comment area to go into full details of what I am thinking all the time, about this one very subject!