One of Marina Abramovic’s main aims was to interact with her audience. In my opinion much of her work strives to cause a reaction from the audience, whether that is shock, discomfort, awe or empathy.

In arts such as television or film, there can be no instant connectivity or interaction with the audience. However with live work, the performance has this extra layer of interaction. Many performers speak of the instant gratification of the audience which can be felt in a live scenario. “It is this interactivity that provides the potential for new meaning-making” (Somers in Pitches and Popat, 2011). The instant reactions can help to guide the performance. If the work is touring, changes can be made in accordance with the feedback received from the live audience.

Although this interactivity has its benefits, there are also many ethical implications which must be taken into consideration. In asking the audience to interact, or to play a role within a piece, the performer must be aware of the implications of asking the audience member to participate. Whatever happens in the imaginary setting created in the work can also have an impact and be applied to real-life scenarios. Although we do not often consider the ethics of a situation in so much detail for events that take place in the real world, much more attention is given to those staged within the fabricated world of performance.

Brian Eno says that by definition, interactive work has to be unfinished. This is because of the unpredictability of interaction. The audience may react differently in each instance of the performance and therefore cannot be too finite in its creation. The performer as well as the content must be flexible to the situation. The audience may not be willing to interact at all, although a certain level of interaction or connectivity is expected in volunteering to watch a performance. However, work that breaks the fourth wall, as suggested by Boal, expects more from the audience, they are expected to engage, to become actors as opposed to just spectators.

All of these elements must be taken into consideration during the creation of a work; the type of interaction, the ethics of the situation, the multiple ways the audience may respond and what you want the audience to take away with them when they leave the performance.