Economies of Collaboration in Performance

This is a book about collaboration in the arts, which explores how working together seems to achieve more than the sum of the parts. It introduces ideas from economics to conceptualize notions of externalities, complementarity, and emergence, and playfully explores collaborative structures such as the swarm, the crowd, the flock, and the network. It uses up-to-date thinking about Wikinomics, Postcapitalism, and Biopolitics, underpinned by ideas from Foucault, Bourriaud, and Hardt and Negri. In a series of thought-provoking case studies, the authors consider creative practices in theatre, music and film. They explore work by artists such as Gob Squad, Eric Whitacre, Dries Verhoeven, Pete Wyer, and Tino Seghal, and encounter both live and online collaborative possibilities in fascinating discussions of Craigslist and crowdfunding at the Edinburgh Festival. What is revealed is that the introduction of Web 2.0 has enabled a new paradigm of artistic practice to emerge, in which participatory encounters, collaboration, and online dialogue become key creative drivers. Written itself as a collaborative project between Karen Savage and Dominic Symonds, this is a strikingly original take on the economics of working together.

Author Biography

Karen Savage is Head of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln, UK. She is co-convenor of the Intermediality working group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. She explores interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches in both her practice and research across theatre and film.

Dominic Symonds is Professor of Musical Theatre at the University of Lincoln, UK. He is co-editor of Studies in Musical Theatre, and the author of several books in the area. Alongside his work in musical theatre, his research focuses on performance cartography, collaboration and migration.