Really Sell It To Me: Immersive Theatre as Ideal Commodity
Kelsey Laine Jacobson
Abstract
This article considers the multi-sensory, experiential nature of immersive performance through the lens of consumer value perception. Everything from touching, smelling, moving, seeing, and sometimes even tasting are often included in immersive productions, encapsulating a total experience for audience-consumers. The use of such a variety of sensory modalities creates a highly unique show for each attendee, as it is dependent on individual perception and bodily experience. This article suggests that the experience is paradoxically so unrepeatable that it actually encourages attendees to repeat the experience. The variety of sensory modalities used in immersive theatre thus increases its perceived value as a commodity by offering a highly individualized experience that audience members may return night after night for something new. Utilizing theory ranging from Philip Auslander and Peggy Phelan to economists Joseph B. Pine and James Gilmore, it is suggested that immersive productions’ unique use of apparent ephemerality, or unrepeatability, induces commodity value.
This article considers the multi-sensory, experiential nature of immersive performance through the lens of consumer value perception. Everything from touching, smelling, moving, seeing, and sometimes even tasting are often included in immersive productions, encapsulating a total experience for audience-consumers. The use of such a variety of sensory modalities creates a highly unique show for each attendee, as it is dependent on individual perception and bodily experience. This article suggests that the experience is paradoxically so unrepeatable that it actually encourages attendees to repeat the experience. The variety of sensory modalities used in immersive theatre thus increases its perceived value as a commodity by offering a highly individualized experience that audience members may return night after night for something new. Utilizing theory ranging from Philip Auslander and Peggy Phelan to economists Joseph B. Pine and James Gilmore, it is suggested that immersive productions’ unique use of apparent ephemerality, or unrepeatability, induces commodity value.
| etudesdec2016jacobson.pdf |
