Designing Interactive Audience Participation using Smart phones in a Musical Performance

In this paper we describe the design and evaluation of an interactive system for audience participation in live performances using smart phones to control the stereo panorama of the lead guitar. The systemwas developed through feedback from both spectators and artists. The evaluation was conducted during a live concert and builds on interviews and video analysis. Findings include that musicians seem to be cautious about giving up control and that the audience at the same time wants a reasonable amount of control and clear feedback which in turn can be obtrusive to other spectators. We outline that balancing constraints with affordances is the key to both the audience’s and musicians’ acceptance of such a system and that a playful participatory design process can lead to better results in this regard. It is also shown that using smart phones opens up a large possibility space but at the same time their use has to be subtle to not distract too much from the music.