KJ – Amanda Palmer is definitely on the “dream interview” list – as is Trent Reznor, who has been light years ahead of the game when it comes to using social networking to connect with fans.

Glowing sceens and typing motions are distracting and annoying when we’re in a dark theatre, trying to focus on the stage.

Some performers could encourage the use of web-enabled devices, or merely bits of technology that light up for use instead of the traditional lighters as part of their performance. Bloggers are now invited to conferences to spread the word about the sessions and topics.

But Lapone’s comments about her creative content being her own property are fair. Venues have for years decried the use of flash photography during the shows because of both the property rights of the performers in their creative pursuits as well as the protection of other audience members against distraction. This request has not met with the same backlash as as has tweeting a performance.

While it can be free publicity, it is still the performer’s performance. Buying a ticket allows you personal access to their performance, its illegal to tape movies in movie theaters, its sometimes illegal to take pictures in art galleries. I think its their material to disseminate in the manner they choose.

And not everyone has the financial capability or experience to pick out an individual and hold them accountable for infringement, but a consistent request for respect may be upheld.

I think it would be interesting to interview someone who has capitalized on this subject in many ways, have you thought of trying to contact Amanda Palmer? She has really embraced social networking to her own gain and maybe has insight into this new way of integrating technologies proliferation amongst her fans into performance.

I think it’s rude to text during events. I understand and have been guilty of the ineluctable draw of immediately sharing something with friends via text or Twitter/Twitpic. But the act itself takes the audience member / viewer outside of the experience and one becomes disengaged – even if for a moment. Can’t we just sit back, relax and experience an event for a little while? See it in context and breathe it in for a little while, think about it before dashing off some stupid or droll comment about it. I think that’s what artists want and the interplay with the audience is just as important to an artist as the performance is.

I think we’re becoming a generation of fireflies flitting around from one experience to the next not wholly contemplating the information we consume and too busy collecting/referencing/passing on to someone else. I do it, but honestly it’s all beginning to piss me off lately and I’m trying to restrain myself a bit more.

This Times article, although it concerns phones in meetings, was interesting to me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/22smartphones.html?scp=3&sq=etiquette%20&st=cse