Emily Saletan RR7

It is not an understatement to say that I owe my life to participatory performance – and by this I mean that on a Friday night in 1993, my parents met one another at a participatory folk dance. I was accordingly born into a community that danced international folk dance, contra dance, square dance, English country dance, and Scottish, among other traditions.

One of my favorite parts of participatory performance is that oftentimes there is little to no formal study necessary. In some traditions, for example English country dance or contra dance, there is a “caller” who walks through the dance pattern and announces each element of the dance as it comes. In other traditions, there is more of a culture of jumping into the line and learning as it goes. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone gets to keep dancing. Everyone is among friends as well as strangers.

As I was walking with a friend over the weekend, we passed by an informal drum circle that meets weekly. We were only watching for a few moments before the participants handed me a drum and walked away. He returned shortly with two shakers for my friend. I suppose with unpitched percussion it’s a little easier to join the rhythm without disruption than it is for pitched instruments, but the experience reminded me very much of the kind of folk dance I grew up doing. We were immediately able and welcome to join in the noise.

I loved the remark on page 365 of Artful Design that “people will express themselves creatively” when participation is encouraged and inhibitions are reduced. I have witnessed this firsthand in my own participatory artistic communities. Not only that, I believe that the spirit of participation translates to other contexts. For example, someone who grows up in a community of watching, trying, and learning might be less afraid of making mistakes, or less afraid of what others might think of those mistakes, or both. Like anonymity, growing more comfortable with failure in front of others is one way of lowering participants’ inhibitions. They might also, by developing the skills necessary to pick up by observing and attempting, increase their self-confidence in doing so.

These are anecdotal examples, but I feel that regular practice of in-person participatory performance lends itself to a myriad of other circumstances. This makes me curious about the translatability of habits built using parallel social technologies. Connective platforms like World of Warcraft, Leaf Trombone, or We Feel Fine encourage social participation and lower inhibitions via anonymity. What are the ways in which acting in anonymous environments, where people feel freer to be vulnerable, might lead to greater comfort with vulnerability in non-anonymous settings?