Attention and judgement

From November 22 memos:

When we were talking about Carapace being recorded, I asked Eleanor how the audience behaved while being recorded (since the camera did pan the audience). She said she hadn’t watched the show, but

I would guess the audience probably was a little self-conscious.

People are.

That’s part of the

unspoken agreement about being audience, I think.

I am not in the spotlight.

I think this is another interesting observation about greater cultural understandings of how performers and audience members are supposed to behave. The audience is supposed to be quiet and attentive, but they are not expected to perform. And this is a comfortable thing for the audience. If they wanted to perform, they would get on stage.

The spotlight is uncomfortable when thrust upon someone because with attention comes judgement. If the audience is being watched, they have to act like they are being a good audience. Otherwise people will judge them. As much as Carapace tries to remove judgement, and audience members may act like they are not judging storytellers, they are. We can’t help but make judgement in our heads. Not having them shared protects the storytellers, but the judgement still exists and could be too much for some people.