\u201cAudiencing\u201d is a word that communicates that the audience is working<\/em> during an arts experience<\/strong>, Matthew Reason<\/a> told me in an interview. \u201cThat work is multiple: The audience is working at interpreting. It\u2019s working at the social experience of being with the other people in the venue, engaging with the conflicting etiquettes of that. It\u2019s working emotionally. It\u2019s working empathetically. The audience is working hard at being a part of that vital dyad of performer and audience. So audiencing mirrors performing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turning “audience” into a verb conveys what an audience does as active rather than passive, somewhere in the space between listening\/watching and fully participating. As Ben Walmsley<\/a> put it, \u201cIt\u2019s the doing<\/em> bit of being an audience member…\u2019being\u2019 in all of the active senses. The multi-sensory, multi-dimensional act of going to see a show. [Audiencing] gives it an active sound that \u2018being an audience member\u2019 really fails to do.\u201d The term \u201caudiencing\u201d, Lynne Conner<\/a> said, is a \u201cpolitical statement\u201d that places the audience \u201cat the center of the arts experience, and therefore, the art\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audiencing is explored deeply in a new book, the Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts<\/a>, <\/strong>edited by Matthew Reason, Lynne Conner (of ArtsJournal\u2019s We the Audience blog<\/a>), Ben Walmsley, and Katya Johanson<\/a>. It\u2019s a collection of chapters, interviews, and short pieces from about 60 contributors that is the first major collection on audience research. Reason, the lead editor, hopes the Companion will a \u201csignal that moment of arrival\u201d of audience research as a distinct and robust field of study by including researchers from around the world and in \u201cdisciplines ranging from the humanities to the sciences, philosophical traditions through to policy practices, through to arts makers and arts marketeers, as well as academics, all talking about audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m thrilled to have four guest posts here on Row X from Matthew, Lynne, Ben, and Katya. Each post highlights the ideas and writers in each of the four sections of the Companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Too Little Heterogeneity?: Histories, Theories and Questions of Social Justice<\/a><\/strong> by Lynne Conner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Why Audience Research Matters, and Why It Matters Now: Policies, Politics and Practices<\/a><\/strong> by Ben Walmsley<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Methods Make Our World: Methods, Methodologies and Understanding Audiences<\/a><\/strong> by Matthew Reason<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shorts: Adventures in Thinking About Audiences<\/a> by Katya Johanson<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n For the next several weeks I\u2019ll be posting about what I read in the Companion that I think will interest the arts practitioners reading Row X. Short excerpts of video interviews with each of the editors and will be shared LinkedIn<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>. Links to video excerpts will appear on Row X, too. Follow along in this series and join in with your own views and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEthics in Audience Research: By the Book or on the Hop?\u201d by Katya Johanson and Hilary Glow<\/a>, a chapter from the Companion, is available for free to everyone. Follow this link<\/a>, then click on \u201cOpen access content is available for this title\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the artists and arts managers reading Row X and ArtsJournal, especially in the United States, the Companion shows the richness and potential of broadening our thinking about audiences whose purpose is primarily to provide money and support for art-making to understanding \u2013 really understanding \u2013 the experience audiences have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/rowx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Routledge-Companion-Cover-Image.jpg?resize=360%2C512&ssl=1\")
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