Exploratory interviews — Final Major Project
Designers: Alex Newson, Sebastian Ervi
Stage of the project: Exploratory research
To start our project research, Alex and I conducted semi-structured interviews to better understand our immediate surroundings’ relationship with live music and their experience of the lack of physical concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Interviews
We interviewed 1 Chinese casual jazz concertgoer (male, 24), 1 English avid concertgoer with a sight impairment (female, 26), 1 French pop-punk singer (male, 23) and 1 French alternative music fan (female, 22). We also had an informal discussion with our external tutor Jack Hardiker, who is an ex-musician (male).
The interviews were conducted through Zoom, due to the distance between interviewees and researchers. For each interview, one was asking questions and the other one was taking notes. A consent form was signed by every attendant to explain what information is collected and to what purpose, and to ensure that every participating person agreed to being recorded and photographed while interviewed.
We asked each person a set of questions individually adaped from a common basis based on our project proposal. The interview was completed by follow-up questions when necessary:
- Tell us the story of the craziest concert experience you have been to.
- What differences have you experienced in concerts between genres of music?
- Have there been times when you wanted to go to (or perform at) a concert but haven’t been able to? Why?
- Have you ever felt disadvantaged of accessing (or performing at) concerts? Why?
- Tell us your experience of concerts in the context of COVID.
Analysis
We found out that the interviewees seemed to encounter some issues that have prevented them to access a concert: distance, money, time & schedule, and the limited amount of tickets. All of these seem to refer to the spatio-temporal restrictions of a live event, i.e. an event happening in a specific place, at a specific time and on a specific date.
A memorable concert experience seems to be composed of a mix of the following elements: social connections and shareability, familiarity (of the space, and/or the music, and/or the people), freedom, no fear of judgement. It is interesting to note that these elements seem to concern the atmosphere of the concert and the connection between the people involved, rather than the music or the performance itself. Could live music be a facilitator of a memorable social experience, rather than the experience itself?
Some things have shown to restrict the experience at a concert, namely: distance between the experiencer and the stage, visual obstacles (pillars, tall people), the number of people (too many people might cause anxiety), restrictions for disabled people at certain venues, how the space is organised. This time, restrictions seem to majoritarily be caused by the physical space and the amount of people involved.
End notes
From what I personally understand, a good experience happens through a certain psychological and emotional state between the experiencer, the crowd and the artists, that is tied with — or facilitated by — music. From my personal experiences, I believe it is a feeling of immersion in the social and multi-sensory experience of a concert — which we should more extensively research on during the project.
We also discussed with Alex’s previous project partners This Ain’t Rock n’ Roll (Extinction Rebellion) who gave us contacts for an independent music venue, The Windmill Brixton — and for punk bands Crass and Chumbawanba. We tried to contact them with questions by email, but didn’t achieve to get in touch with them.
