White, Gareth (2011) Noise, Conceptual Noise and the Potential of Audience Participation. In: Theatre Noise: The Sound of Performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 198-207. ISBN 9781443834407

Abstract

This chapter is a discussion of actual noise, and the sounds that are manipulated by theatre makers, but also a concept of noise as described by Jacques Attali, amongst others, as "the term for a signal that interferes with the reception of a message by a receiver, even if the interfering signal itself has a meaning for the receiver" (1985, 27). My strategy is to read audience behaviour, both its explicit participation in a performance and its ambient activity in the theatrical event, through the concept of noise, paying particular attention to the noise making and silences of audiences. My aim is to discuss how this may help to develop ideas of the value and purpose of participatory performance, which involves considering the politics of the differentiated roles in theatre events - that is the differences between the behaviour that is proper to audience members and performers - and what the alteration of these roles can mean.