Present absence: when cultural participation goes digital
Abstract
Physical and spatial presence has been regarded as a prerequisite in cultural participation and art mediation, vital for both the authentic art experience and for learning. The digital turn has challenged these truths. This article investigates the challenges and possibilities of participation and mediation when artists and art teachers, who normally meet their young audiences face-to-face in physical venues, reorient themselves and move to digital spaces. Using empirical data from Norway, and the concepts of emotional energy, present absence and liveness, it pursues how participation and mediation take place, and perhaps change, when cultural participation and art experiences move from their traditional physical moorings, and into various digital formats and platforms. Thus, it investigates both what is lost when cultural participation goes digital, what (new) possibilities arise, and how the cultural values associated with participation and mediation are transferred or challenged by digital formats and platforms.