Being there, online : remediating time, space and sociality at online writers’ festivals

Abstract

In recent years literary festivals have expanded their sites to include online and virtual platforms, enabling audiences at a distance to participate remotely in events. The restrictions experienced during the coronavirus pandemic were a catalyst for cultural producers to urgently consider delivering festival programs online, with many recreating in-person-style event formats through virtual livestreams and podcasts. However, remediating the literary festival experience requires more than simply delivering content online; it requires reimagining the festival scene within a new media environment and structuring interaction in a way that is conducive to generating the social occasion festivals are known for. I argue that festival producers have played a crucial role in shaping online experiences through their creative approaches to structuring festival scenes via digital means. While festival research has considered the use of social and digital media at in-person events, and book scholars acknowledge that audiences readily engage with literary culture across both physical and virtual spaces, little is known about how cultural producers create engaging and immersive virtual festival scenes that structure online sociality. A key objective of my research has been to place this recent ‘digital pivot’ in a larger context, and to document and analyse the little-known history of Australia’s earliest innovators in online literary programming. Pioneering research conducted in 2012 by festival producer Lisa Dempster provides a useful typology of artistic programming online; however, there has been considerable innovation and experimentation since then. This thesis extends this typology to incorporate new event formats that create a sense of digital liveness through ambient social connection, challenging the long-held assumptions among programmers and audiences that temporal liveness is fundamental to festival experiences. It applies a sociohistorical approach to analysing archived online festival events that took place throughout the ten-year period between 2010 to 2019, and reveals how the social structures of online festivals have evolved over time. Supported by interviews with festival producers and participatory fieldwork in curatorial practice, this thesis provides detailed and timely insights into the spatiotemporal possibilities for contemporary literary festivals.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Rachel Morley (Supervisor), Ned Rossiter (Supervisor) & Ivor Indyk (Supervisor)