First set of possible design intervention areas for music festival experiences

After fully absorbing my survey data, which was inspiring in itself, I've done some sketching and pondering what I learned. I've come up with several areas that might be worth exploring further around festival experiences - areas that seem to be meaningful and important to people about their experiences, and that aren't necessarily formally supported by any current festival offerings. I'm not a fan of flimsy, maudlin positive sentiments, and the intensity with which people shared their feelings about these areas of experience seems to suggest their real importance in many people's lives.

So far the areas I'm looking at designing some kind of possible support systems for are below. They roughly align to the pre-festival, during-festival and post-festival experience areas.

•  the 'after the festival' positive feeling: expressing, harnessing or sharing it, making it useful to you and other people

• connecting *you* to music: your music, your music community, the personal significance and history of your own music tastes, activities and listening

• supporting self-development and self-exploration at festival: looking at who you are, who you are at a music festival, who do you want to be, who do you want become in the future, personal goals, etc.

• the festival community at large and music festival history: sharing experiences, memories, and recording what often goes unrecorded and forgotten

• the novel, serendipitous or unexpected experience: social connections and experiences, or unusual, out-of-the-ordinary vibrant life experiences

• tribalism, nomadism, or visually expressing membership in a larger, geographically-agnostic community

• music festival experiences over a lifetime: families, music festivals and aging audiences

Reflections on Americanization, Escapism

 I've been thinking about what a drive to attend music festivals means, culturally, for our zeitgeist, and trying to collect thoughts on the subject. Here are a few:

"The development of popular culture from the novel via the image to the triumph of popular music and the "center-less'' heterogeneity of television, created forms of cultural expression that are singularly useful for the purposes of imaginary self-extension and self-empowerment. The result is an increasing separation of expressive elements from moral, social, even narrative contexts. Here is the triumph of "mood over morals.'' Americanization, indeed, is carried by the promise of heightened imaginary self-realization for individuals who are freed from the bonds of social norms and cultural traditions.

Americanization, thus, cannot be viewed as a tacitly engineered hidden cultural takeover but as a process in which individualization is the driving force. This process is most advanced in the US for a number of reasons. The promise of a particular form of individualization provides the explanation why American popular culture finds so much resonance in other societies where it has taken hold almost without resistance (mostly carried by a young generation trying to escape tradition).

Cultural Americanization is thus part of a modernizing process. Americanization is not a form of cultural imperialism, but the embodiment of modernity's promise of painless self-realization for each individual, in contrast to the demands made by more traditional concepts of emancipation. Globalization, which often appears as the triumph of cultural standardization, in reality undermines standardization. No single national culture is the driving force but, instead, globalization is powered by a restless individualism drawing on a growing store of mass symbols. So: we are not becoming Americanized. We "Americanize'' ourselves."
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/invasion-of-the-culture-snatchers- 

"But, judging by the appetite shown worldwide for this narrative, it seems clear that identification with such adventures is almost universal. It seems to speak to a deep longing in men – and in the women who also enjoy these films and TV shows – for a time in one’s life when one could dash toward freedom, adventure, and self-reinvention, unencumbered by social ties and family obligations."
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-great-escapism

But, judging by the appetite shown worldwide for this narrative, it seems clear that identification with such adventures is almost universal. It seems to speak to a deep longing in men – and in the women who also enjoy these films and TV shows – for a time in one’s life when one could dash toward freedom, adventure, and self-reinvention, unencumbered by social ties and family obligations.
Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-great-escapism#cad7sqvVLYRCHBpQ.99

The characteristic form by which music activates the imagination is by short evocations of out-of-context images, or a diffuse feeling of boundlessness, both of which need not be integrated into any meaningful context. Listeners to popular music need not ``earn'' their aesthetic experience through participation. Contrary to prior visual forms of cultural expression, including the movies, there is no longer a need for continuity in the flow of images; contrary to what happens with a novel, no mental translation is required because the sensual effect of music creates associations that are shaped not by narrative but by mood.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThe development of popular culture from the novel via the image to the triumph of popular music and the ``center-less'' heterogeneity of television, created forms of cultural expression that are singularly useful for the purposes of imaginary self-extension and self-empowerment. The result is an increasing separation of expressive elements from moral, social, even narrative contexts. Here is the triumph of ``mood over morals.'' Americanization, indeed, is carried by the promise of heightened imaginary self-realization for individuals who are freed from the bonds of social norms and cultural traditions.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphAmericanization, thus, cannot be viewed as a tacitly engineered hidden cultural takeover but as a process in which individualization is the driving force. This process is most advanced in the US for a number of reasons. The promise of a particular form of individualization provides the explanation why American popular culture finds so much resonance in other societies where it has taken hold almost without resistance (mostly carried by a young generation trying to escape tradition).

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphCultural Americanization is thus part of a modernizing process. Americanization is not a form of cultural imperialism, but the embodiment of modernity's promise of painless self-realization for each individual, in contrast to the demands made by more traditional concepts of emancipation. Globalization, which often appears as the triumph of cultural standardization, in reality undermines standardization. No single national culture is the driving force but, instead, globalization is powered by a restless individualism drawing on a growing store of mass symbols. So: we are not becoming Americanized. We ``Americanize'' ourselves.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/invasion-of-the-culture-snatchers-#Vq5o4XgFmo2CWZ2q.99

The characteristic form by which music activates the imagination is by short evocations of out-of-context images, or a diffuse feeling of boundlessness, both of which need not be integrated into any meaningful context. Listeners to popular music need not ``earn'' their aesthetic experience through participation. Contrary to prior visual forms of cultural expression, including the movies, there is no longer a need for continuity in the flow of images; contrary to what happens with a novel, no mental translation is required because the sensual effect of music creates associations that are shaped not by narrative but by mood.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThe development of popular culture from the novel via the image to the triumph of popular music and the ``center-less'' heterogeneity of television, created forms of cultural expression that are singularly useful for the purposes of imaginary self-extension and self-empowerment. The result is an increasing separation of expressive elements from moral, social, even narrative contexts. Here is the triumph of ``mood over morals.'' Americanization, indeed, is carried by the promise of heightened imaginary self-realization for individuals who are freed from the bonds of social norms and cultural traditions.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphAmericanization, thus, cannot be viewed as a tacitly engineered hidden cultural takeover but as a process in which individualization is the driving force. This process is most advanced in the US for a number of reasons. The promise of a particular form of individualization provides the explanation why American popular culture finds so much resonance in other societies where it has taken hold almost without resistance (mostly carried by a young generation trying to escape tradition).

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphCultural Americanization is thus part of a modernizing process. Americanization is not a form of cultural imperialism, but the embodiment of modernity's promise of painless self-realization for each individual, in contrast to the demands made by more traditional concepts of emancipation. Globalization, which often appears as the triumph of cultural standardization, in reality undermines standardization. No single national culture is the driving force but, instead, globalization is powered by a restless individualism drawing on a growing store of mass symbols. So: we are not becoming Americanized. We ``Americanize'' ourselves.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/invasion-of-the-culture-snatchers-#Vq5o4XgFmo2CWZ2q.99

The characteristic form by which music activates the imagination is by short evocations of out-of-context images, or a diffuse feeling of boundlessness, both of which need not be integrated into any meaningful context. Listeners to popular music need not ``earn'' their aesthetic experience through participation. Contrary to prior visual forms of cultural expression, including the movies, there is no longer a need for continuity in the flow of images; contrary to what happens with a novel, no mental translation is required because the sensual effect of music creates associations that are shaped not by narrative but by mood.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThe development of popular culture from the novel via the image to the triumph of popular music and the ``center-less'' heterogeneity of television, created forms of cultural expression that are singularly useful for the purposes of imaginary self-extension and self-empowerment. The result is an increasing separation of expressive elements from moral, social, even narrative contexts. Here is the triumph of ``mood over morals.'' Americanization, indeed, is carried by the promise of heightened imaginary self-realization for individuals who are freed from the bonds of social norms and cultural traditions.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphAmericanization, thus, cannot be viewed as a tacitly engineered hidden cultural takeover but as a process in which individualization is the driving force. This process is most advanced in the US for a number of reasons. The promise of a particular form of individualization provides the explanation why American popular culture finds so much resonance in other societies where it has taken hold almost without resistance (mostly carried by a young generation trying to escape tradition).

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphCultural Americanization is thus part of a modernizing process. Americanization is not a form of cultural imperialism, but the embodiment of modernity's promise of painless self-realization for each individual, in contrast to the demands made by more traditional concepts of emancipation. Globalization, which often appears as the triumph of cultural standardization, in reality undermines standardization. No single national culture is the driving force but, instead, globalization is powered by a restless individualism drawing on a growing store of mass symbols. So: we are not becoming Americanized. We ``Americanize'' ourselves.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/invasion-of-the-culture-snatchers-#Vq5o4XgFmo2CWZ2q.99

The characteristic form by which music activates the imagination is by short evocations of out-of-context images, or a diffuse feeling of boundlessness, both of which need not be integrated into any meaningful context. Listeners to popular music need not ``earn'' their aesthetic experience through participation. Contrary to prior visual forms of cultural expression, including the movies, there is no longer a need for continuity in the flow of images; contrary to what happens with a novel, no mental translation is required because the sensual effect of music creates associations that are shaped not by narrative but by mood.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThe development of popular culture from the novel via the image to the triumph of popular music and the ``center-less'' heterogeneity of television, created forms of cultural expression that are singularly useful for the purposes of imaginary self-extension and self-empowerment. The result is an increasing separation of expressive elements from moral, social, even narrative contexts. Here is the triumph of ``mood over morals.'' Americanization, indeed, is carried by the promise of heightened imaginary self-realization for individuals who are freed from the bonds of social norms and cultural traditions.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphAmericanization, thus, cannot be viewed as a tacitly engineered hidden cultural takeover but as a process in which individualization is the driving force. This process is most advanced in the US for a number of reasons. The promise of a particular form of individualization provides the explanation why American popular culture finds so much resonance in other societies where it has taken hold almost without resistance (mostly carried by a young generation trying to escape tradition).

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphCultural Americanization is thus part of a modernizing process. Americanization is not a form of cultural imperialism, but the embodiment of modernity's promise of painless self-realization for each individual, in contrast to the demands made by more traditional concepts of emancipation. Globalization, which often appears as the triumph of cultural standardization, in reality undermines standardization. No single national culture is the driving force but, instead, globalization is powered by a restless individualism drawing on a growing store of mass symbols. So: we are not becoming Americanized. We ``Americanize'' ourselves.

Read more at http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/invasion-of-the-culture-snatchers-#Vq5o4XgFmo2CWZ2q.99

NY Times Review of Bonnaroo 2012: Understanding one of the largest American music festivals

 I really liked this analysis, and wanted to save a couple relevant quotes.

"Never mind me and my choices: put those acts together, and what’s the message? What does it express? Not newness, really, but something about grooves and songwriting and resonance; perhaps, all together, a desire for longevity. The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is not about “authentic” music — beware of that word — but it might be about music that either has had a long life or expects to. Music that isn’t instantly forgettable. Music that you would want to deposit in the correct recycling bin."

"Bonnaroo is mainly a camping festival, sold out this year at 80,000. It’s an experience festival ... because Bonnaroo really is understood as a marker in people’s lives. And experience trumps aesthetic sensibility."

"I have an unrealistic fantasy of a music festival purely of excellence, with no responsibility toward any aesthetic or sound or region, only toward the principles of unity and purpose in sound. Bonnaroo is not that. But it allows you, at least, to dream in those terms."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/arts/music/bonnaroo-music-and-arts-festival-in-all-its-multiplicity.html?pagewanted=1

Maslow on Health as Transcendence of Environment

"The danger that I see is the resurgence, in new and more sophisticated forms, of the old identification of psychological health with adjustment, adjustment to reality, adjustment to society, adjustment to other people. That is, the authentic or healthy person may be defined not in his own right, not in his autonomy, not by his own intra-psychic and non-environmental laws, not as different from the environment, independent of it or opposed to it..." (pg 168)

Notes on "The impact of music festival attendance on young people's psychological and social well-being"

 "I felt something that I hadn't really felt before and I've been chasing it ever since." (pg 169)

While the cognitive, emotional, psychological and cultural benefits of exposure to and participation in musical activities (such as playing, dancing, listening, etc.) are well documented and thoroughly researched, I've found little research into the benefits of music festival experiences. This article, released in Psychology of Music in 2010, provides a thorough investigation of the topic, and some additional quantitative data in support of the benefits of music festival attendance. While it's specific to young people, I posit that the impacts would be similar across age ranges.

So we know music is a good thing, and good for you. But what about the whole festival experience, the full immersion in a musical community context, paired with that?

Music festivals don't just contribute to 'a transitory state of subjective well-being' but also become 'party of the way a person defines themselves' (pg 169). 

The study focused on four facets of a music festival experience: the music experience, the festival experience, the social experience, and the separation experience.

As for the music experience, which affords participants 'unstructured and informal music learning':

"Rather than being passive recievers of music, participants felt they played a central role in the music experience" (pg 168)

The festival experience:

"The experience was seen to start weeks, even months before the festival commenced. The anticipation and preparation contributed to a gradual build-up of excitement, and when the festival was over the cycle started again, with anticipation of the next festival" (pg 169)

"The sheer enjoyment of festival participation was expressed strongly by participants and was so satisfying that they were continually drawn back to repeat the experience." (pg 169)

The social experience:

"Sharing the same taste in music led to more positive appraisals of others and the desire to befriend them" (pg 170)

"...once a group is formed, its members benefit. They attain the emotional gratifications of belonging to an 'elite' group that they themselves define as distinct from other groups" (pg 171).

The separation experience:

"By providing a new social context that was removed from the expectations and routines of everyday life, it allowed participants to reflect and re-evaluate their own self-understanding and self-acceptance" (pg 172).

Similar to my survey results, this study found that many of their participants would endorse the statement that "I feel happier with myself as a person", "I feel I have grown/developed as a person" (pg. 177).

So, at least for young people (aged 18-23), festivals can provide a crucial space for self-development and exploration. As the article concludes, "for some participants the music festival experience was not only meaningful in itself, but gave meaning to the rest of their lives" (pg 178).

In summary: getting away from everyday life and routines and off to a music festival, is, more often than not, really good for people and their lives.