Technology and its impact on live performing arts
Introduction and background
Performing arts have always formed an important element in communicating culture and emotions. The filming or performing process consists of four main stages which include planning, making, editing/ improvising and promoting. All of these activities were initially performed with a lot of effort as dialogues had to be written and not typed or scanned, they had to be photocopied and not printed, there were no computers to mix sounds, edit the effects and also to research. (Purcell, 2007) Technology of the present times enables theatre to gain support from other sources in order to make the process quicker. Marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business. The same is applicable even to live performing arts. E marketing and social media marketing along with other technologies help them achieve better publicity and promotion (Purcell, 2007). With the changing needs and requirements of the consumers and increasing competition across the globe the companies also needs to change its strategies and policies so as to have an competitive edge in the market of operations. Technology has changed the pace of the performing arts by making the system digital.
Impact of technology on arts
Technology has impacted almost every domain and this includes arts and live performances. It becomes essential that there be higher levels of focus on the macro environmental changes so that it becomes possible to ensure better growth and levels of competitiveness for a live performance. In present times where in television, internet and cinema are available to consumers and are attracting them better, live performing arts are slowly losing their audiences to these substitutes. It becomes important for them to be able to ensure that they use technologies to their maximum advantage. The alternate business model is the online business model and so online marketing has become an essential element for global businesses in the age of internet. Currently, marketing through internet has become a vital tool of the business organizations to expand the business beyond national boundaries. Internet marketing has been described by several authors and researcher in different terms and meanings. In simple words, internet marketing can be understood as marketing and promotion of product over internet or digital marketing through which companies can target consumers beyond the nation’s boundary (Varum, et.al., 2011). The need to have presence on the web or the internet is mainly due to the consumers becoming tech savvy and so all live performance groups also are having to promote their plays online as well (Holman, 2005). It creates a need for them to expand their horizons and perform realistic, presently relatable and extremely interesting plays in order to achieve audience's attention and retention. Although the Internet can serve as a conduit for reaching geographically and socially isolated individuals, understanding its current usability and limits is necessary for effective planning. Only then the financial and commercial success of the theatre is possible (Holman, 2005). With the rapid development of information technology, geographical distances have been lessened to virtual distances. Changing times make it extremely important to revolutionize the marketing system and ensure that it suits the present needs. To maintain competitive advantage, the producers of performing arts are continuously upgrading their potential and business efficiency. Technology adds value through its functions of information gathering and distributing market intelligence, promoting the arts by promotional offers and advertisements and improving customer communications, logistics and handling of goods.
Positive and negative influence
Technology has impacted the present generations to a great extent. Technology has an extremely important role to play in present times. In the present age of computers, technology has become an important part of every possible field (Steiff, 2005). We can see technology grow in leaps and bounds in the domains of communication, manufacturing, transportation, media, medical sciences and education. It is not possible to avoid technology in any domain including live performances. So, theatre and performance groups will need to accept and adopt to technology.
With the help of technology across the globe, new equipment have been developed which is helping the performers enhance the performance. Some of the positive impacts of technology on theatre and live performance is based on the fact that special sound effects, editing and online marketing has helped theatre groups be able to set their plays up faster (Campbell, 2002). Moreover the internet has made research extremely easy for them.
Yet technology has led to high competition from substitutes. Moreover as there are several other sources of entertainment ranging from video games to 3D movie halls, it has all resulted in slow down of audience presence in live performance theatres and has taken away a large part of its market share. Also integration and speed of the ongoing work also improves with the help of technology application. Improved and new communication technologies have become prevalent all over the globe.
Technology in Live performance arts helps provide sustainable development in the field of Live performance arts. Sustainable development refers to development of a nation or an economy or even a business or a Live performance arts system in such a manner that it leads to short term as well as long term benefits to the economy. The focus in case of sustainable development is to ensure that the development is in favour of the next few generations (Campbell, 2002).
The efficiency gains and the promise of quality are the main drivers of the investment of the technology in this sector. But the complexity and cost of implementation of new technology based gadgets are its barriers. The complete process of adoption of implementation of technology generally requires change in culture and a significant work process.
Recommendations and Conclusion
It is recommended that live performance theatre groups form better adoption of technology and propagate their skills and talent through these technologies. In case of sustainable development the focus is on elimination of issues and problems that are causing the deterioration and hollowing of the system itself. In this way sustainable development is done with a long term vision and helps ensure that stagnation does not take place at all in the live arts system. This has been greatly supported by technology. Technology helps create better access to entertainment including live arts performance. Globalization makes this extremely important. The concept of change is relatively old but its importance in the present world of marketing is immensely growing as firms are expanding into the global markets. The present day youth are very well acquainted with technologies like internet and computers which makes it essential for the leaders in the field of arts to use it and help the youth be motivated to make maximum usage of it in order to know more about these arts.
References
Campbell. “Drew: Technical Film and TV for Nontechnical People”. Allworth Communications, 2002. Web. 06 December 2013.
Holman, Tomlinson. Sound for Digital Video . Focal Press, 2005. Print.
Purcell, JohnDialogue Editing for Motion Pictures. Focal Press, 2007. Print.
Steiff, Josef. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Independent Filmmaking. Alpha Books, 2005. Print.
