Conclusion: The Pleasures of Interpretation in the Live | Digital Era

Abstract

When it comes to the makeup of contemporary arts audiences, we are in the midst of a culture war. I’m not referring to tensions between the high brows, low brows, and omnivores, or older and younger generations, or Black or White or Hispanic behavioral constructs, or people who eat wrapped candy versus everyone else. The culture war I’m talking about is between analog people and digital people. Analog people aren’t Luddites—they mostly all have smart phones, iPads, and personal computers. And digital people aren’t always rude twenty-somethings more engaged with their screens than with the physical world around them. The distinction between the two cultures lies in the way each thinks about how to use technology. Analog people enhance their daily tasks with technology. Digital people reinvent theirs with technology.

Karl Marx had a pretty good idea. On a perfect day in a perfect world, he wrote, a happy citizen might “hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening” and, finally and best of all, “criticize after dinner,” perhaps with a bottle of wine on the table.