Page 138 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014TWEET SEATSPhoto credits: http://ow.ly/tuoGISaint Louis Shakespeare Festival @shakesfestSTL #intheglen) says, “Coast to coast, theatres [in the United States] are experimenting with how to use 'tweet seats' effectively. The arts are evolving right now, they are participatory. ... Social media are a tool we rely on, and we should not be afraid to experiment with them.” The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra installed its tweet seats in September 2010. Its communications vice-president, Chris Pinelo, said, “It was great to see how people were reacting to the orchestra, reacting to the conductor and, frankly, reacting to the insights happening backstage. We've had some repeat visits from people who came to the tweet seats”. One of the people sitting in one of the tweet seats, Jennifer Nissenbaum, of 35 years of age described her experience in Cincinnati in the USA Today article, “I could communicate openly about my reactions to the music, musicians and conductor — without speaking a word. Plus, I had the opportunity to engage others, and get their reactions to the performance”.BLOGGERS’ NIGHT AT THE OPERAVancouver Opera holds blogger nights to which it invites bloggers, all those influencers who tweet most or comment most on theatre programmes in all the social media. They are a kind of press corps in addition to the traditional one and they are afforded special treatment. They are invited to see what happens before the performance with the artistsAC/Ebackstage. The idea is that they will tweet about these moments as well as tweeting about the performance during the intervals. Once the performance is over they are invited to a party with the performers and artists, a moment they also tweet about via the social media. http:// www.vancouveropera.ca/SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENTSSan Francisco Gay Men’s Chorushttp://www.sfgmc.org/This San Francisco musical institution tweets backstage photos just before its performances and it includes QR codes in its programmes for additional downloads about the day’s interactive programme including the social media moments, moments of the performance during which the organisers encourage the audience to take out their smartphones, tweet and send photos to their social networks. These moments are represented with the logos of Facebook and Twitter on the programme.FOCUS 2014: THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS2.1 THE USE OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES DURING PERFORMANCES CURRENT PAGE...SAN FRANCISCO GAY MEN’S CHORUS138