Westerside, Andrew (2022) Wrestling with Techology: Audiences, Politics and the Ecosystems of Attendance during Covid-19. International Joural of Performing Arts and Digital Media . ISSN 1479-4713
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IJPADM Special Issue - Final Submission - May 2022.docx - Whole Document Restricted to Repository staff only until 30 December 2023. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. 74kB |
Item Type: | Article |
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Item Status: | Live Archive |
Abstract
Using a mixed methodology of case study analysis, qualitative methods and semi-longitudinal data analysis, this research asks how professional wrestling’s ‘techno-fix’ (Huesemann and Huesemann 2011) response to Covid-19 sought to remedy real or perceived voids in cultural and sporting participation since the global emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in March 2020. It considers the extent to which emerging, technologically driven models of event attendance are indeed ‘fixes’ at all, and identifies what such ‘fixes’ have therefore presupposed was ‘broken’, primarily in the social and/or aesthetic contract between performer and audience. The research examines spectator-performer and spectator-spectator relationships in live-broadcast events where in-arena audiences function as a form of paratext to the event-proper. In conclusion, the article considers to what extent these ‘techno-fixes’ are, in-and-of-themselves, responsible for creating emergent political, economic and ecological issues that require careful critical attendance for arts, culture and entertainment in a post-Covid landscape.
Keywords: | Theatre, Performance, Technology, Wrestling, COVID-19, Audiences |
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Subjects: | W Creative Arts and Design > W440 Theatre studies |
Divisions: | College of Arts > School of Fine & Performing Arts > School of Fine & Performing Arts (Performing Arts) |
ID Code: | 50008 |
Deposited On: | 30 Jun 2022 14:28 |
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