Open Symphony: Creative Participation for Audiences of Live Music Performances

Most contemporary Western performing arts practices restrict creative interactions from audiences. Open Symphony is designed to explore audience-performer interaction in live music performances, assisted by digital technology. Audiences can conduct improvising performers by voting for various musical "modes." Technological components include a web-based mobile application, a visual client displaying generated symbolic scores, and a server service for the exchange of creative data. The interaction model, app, and visualization were designed through an iterative participatory design process. The system was experienced by about 120 audience and performer participants (35 completed surveys) in controlled (lab) and real-world settings. Feedback on usability and user experience was overall positive, and live interactions demonstrate significant levels of audience creative engagement. The authors identified further design challenges around audience sense of control, learnability, and compositional structure. This article is part of a special issue on multimedia for enriched music.