Human Science of Audiences

June 27th, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Brown, D. E., Performance, Theatre, Universals |

Given that an audience for a performance event is, in all likelihood, human, it is inevitable that this audience bring with them to the event those aspect of being human which are often referred to as ‘human universals’ (Brown, D.E. 1991), concepts, habits, and practices which seem to exist in all cultures and are part of the being of human. This collection of universals, aggregated into what might be thought of as a theorems of a particularly human science, forms the common sense with which they/we interpret and realise that event. Some of these human science theories which apply to a performance might include the following:

• The performance event is an abnormal state.
• The performance event is contained in space and time.
• Events occurring in the space and time of the performance are designed and/or intentional.
• Events occurring in the space which are proximate in space and/or time are connected.
• Any sufficiently complex entity in the space is capable of intentional action, particularly if that entity resembles a human being (anthropomorphism).