When Lilian Stolk of The Hmm met on a July morning with media scientist Esther Hammelburg in Jitsi, she has been working away all night to prepare her dissertation for a test reader. For the last five years, Esther has been working on her PhD at the University of Amsterdam on ‘liveness’, which means following something remotely via media – such as our phones, televisions, and internet. Liveness encompasses different interactions: we can watch an event remotely – on television or online – or physically visit an event and tweet or post about being there. To what extent does the use of such media shape the live experience of an event?

Esther’s research, which she conducted before the COVID pandemic, included a field study at three different events: Oerol, an annual cultural festival on the Dutch island of Terschelling; Serious Request, a charity event where three radio DJs make radio 24/7 for three days from a glass house somewhere in the Netherlands; and Pride Amsterdam, a nine-day celebration of diversity in Amsterdam, with the Canal Parade as the peak of the festival. Esther visited and observed all three festivals and interviewed nearly 400 people who were either physically or remotely present at the events. In addition, she collected tweets and Instagram posts about the festivals.

Lilian wanted to talk to Esther because, through her research, she has a lot of knowledge about what the essence is of attending an event. What makes an audience feel part of the event? By dissecting the different elements that make up a live experience, it’s easier for us, as organisers of events to free ourselves from the habits and structures of physical events and really experiment with new, hybrid forms.

Esther’s research led to three core insights. First, how we experience ‘liveness’ changes over time. The experience is determined by the context in which it is achieved. Twenty years ago, that context was different from today. Secondly, often liveness is emphasised as a feeling of ‘now’, but according to Esther there are three essential elements to achieving this feeling: time, place, and social bonds. A live event is about a sense of ‘we are here together now’. Her third insight is that it is important to bring the physical and the mediated environment in line with one another. On the boat towards Terschelling, visitors post photos with captions like ‘Oerol, here I come’. While we might relegate it to the borders of our phones, the Instagram environment is also an environment where people are. If people attend an event and they don’t share that on Instagram, in the Instagram environment, they are not really there.

How do you ensure this alignment between the physical and the mediated space when there is no physical event space, like we experienced during the pandemic? Organisers of events are making a great mistake when they think they can simply transplant what they used to do physically into an online space. An online event is not a literal translation of an offline event. To investigate what makes a good online or hybrid event experience, it is useful to, once again, take a look at the three elements Esther defined as necessary to get this feeling of ‘now’: time, place and the social bonds. How do you shape place? How do you shape time? And how do you give shape to the social? During our conversation Esther tells me what she learned about these elements through her research.

Place: play with the physical space of the online visitor

Lilian Stolk: As your research has shown, when people post a photo of their boat trip to Oerol on a platform like Instagram, an extra layer of spaciousness is added to the experience. It makes the experience more intense. How can this be translated to online events? How can you apply multiple layers of spaciousness when an event happens entirely online?

Esther Hammelburg: Let’s take this conversation as an example. We’re now speaking digitally via Jitsi, but we’re both in a physical environment. It would have been a different experience if we had met in a cafe. Our physical environment always plays a role.The difference with Oerol is that Oerol primarily takes place in one specific physical environment, whereas our meeting could happen in many different spaces. I think the physical location of visitors might play a role during online events, but that’s something we have yet to learn. Thirty years ago, you wouldn’t have even thought of using your phone to post online and share that you were present at a physical event. You can also add a layer of spaciousness to an online conference by tweeting about it. With conferences going online, the activity on Twitter has sometimes increased. Perhaps the need to tweet is even stronger when you’re watching a conference from your bedroom instead of being there physically. Attendees want to emphasise that they are really there.

But you also see that people consciously do not use media during events. Post-pandemic, this could also accelerate as we become tired of sitting behind screens. For a hybrid event, I imagine it’s nice to let people do something in their own physical environment, separated from the screen.

LS: As organisers of events, I think it’s a challenge to make an interesting event experience for physical and virtual visitors. But instead of reinventing the wheel for a hybrid event, maybe we can fall back on existing technology. Maybe we can learn from other fields, like television. Did you see elements in your research that cultural organisations could learn from?

EH: Indeed, we sometimes forget that television brought forward new inventions and ideas that could be used in different contexts today. Serious Request is an event that people follow physically and via television. I noticed during my research that people who follow this event via television created their own physical traditions and rituals. For example, they’d curl up on the couch with a blanket and decorate their living room with Christmas ornaments. Because Serious Request always takes place before Christmas, for many viewers I interviewed, this ritual was part of their experience. In addition to their decorated living room, people are collecting money by, for example, riding their scooter from Assen to Groningen. They share photos of their trip via social media, and sometimes their posts are also shared by the organisation. In that way this event has many physical event locations outside of the central glass house.

Place: an event can also take place in several locations at the same time

LS: It’s interesting to think about an event taking place in multiple locations. In a previous conversation we had, you gave the example of a football match. You can watch it live in a football stadium, but you can also invite a group of friends and watch it together at home. Both generate a live experience.

EH: For music performances, art gatherings, and maybe also for lecture events, it could work well to organise smaller meetings in different locations that people can come to. In the context of sustainability, more and more people don’t want to fly to the other side of the world for a three-day conference six times a year. Large conferences can also create hubs per continent or country. And if people can invite friends over to watch a football match at home, why not throw a festival party with streamed DJ music?

Place: use the platform as a ritual space

LS: I get that not understanding how a platform works can be a barrier to join an event – and this can be a reason to use a platform that people know – but it’s not like I’m going to an event in Zoom because it takes place in Zoom. For most online events you will simply receive a link in your mailbox to join an event. If you make sure the platform you use works well and is easy to understand, you can also use a platform that is new for everyone.

EH: I even think this is an added value. When you create a platform that is truly isolated from websites people regularly visit or use, it’s a new experience for people. If you broadcast your event via Facebook Live, you still send people to Facebook where a lot of people are used to doing other things. As a result, they easily get out of the flow of your event. If you want to create a ritual gathering – by that I mean that visitors follow your event with a certain dedication – I think this should take place out of peoples’ daily browsing habits. People go to a festival site. People take a boat to Terschelling. Then they can also click on a link to a platform that they do not know.

LS: I get that not understanding how a platform works can be a barrier to join an event – and this can be a reason to use a platform that people know – but it’s not like I’m going to an event in Zoom because it takes place in Zoom. For most online events, you will simply receive a link in your mailbox to join an event. If you make sure the platform you use works well and is easy to understand, you can also use a platform that everyone is new to.

EH: I even think this is an added value. When you create a platform that is truly isolated from websites people regularly visit or use, it’s a new experience for people. If you broadcast your event via Facebook Live, you still send people to Facebook where a lot of people are used to doing other things. As a result, they easily get out of the flow of your event. If you want to create a ritual gathering – by that I mean that visitors follow your event with a certain dedication – I think this should take place out of peoples’ daily browsing habits. People go to a festival site. People take a boat to Terschelling. Then they can also click on a link to a platform that they do not know.

Time: creating rituals

LS: For online events, we haven’t yet developed clear rituals. Often people watch television at a certain time, and sometimes for a specific program. But we use our laptop all day long, and we’re mainly using it for things other than visiting events. Many people are now getting tired of attending online events. I totally understand that if you’ve been working behind your laptop all day, you don’t want to open it again in the evening to attend an event.

EH: Indeed. That could be different if we no longer constantly work from home. Still, there are a lot of distractions on a laptop. Now that I talk to you, I also see new e-mails popping up on my screen. The power of Oerol, which takes place on an island, is that you leave the mainland behind. Going to a festival on a physical festival site has a similar effect. Of course you can still call and check your e-mail, but for many people it feels like they are gone for a while. Following an event while sitting at your kitchen table is the opposite of that.

LS: I also sign up for all kinds of online events, and only visit half of them. I’m even often doing things for work while I’m watching.

EH: Yes, it is easier to follow something on the side. Also because at online events, the audience is often not visible. For that reason I always try to turn on my camera at meetings. It helps you to be aware and feel seen. An audience at a physical event, even if they don’t contribute to the program, is still seen by the speaker and other visitors. At online events, the audience can watch and listen unseen. You can even do the dishes while attending an event.

LS: Do you think rituals are necessary to have a good live experience?

EH: I think so. Rituals can ensure that people join an event with time and attention. It is very difficult to accomplish this on a laptop, at a kitchen table, without having any rituals. We’ll probably develop all kinds of solutions for this that we don’t know yet.

Time: during online events a transition time is lacking

LS: If you go to Oerol, you have to take a 2-hour boat ride. Even if you’re attending an event in the city or town where you live, you need to get ready and travel to the venue. This journey, a transition to an event, is missing at online events. To attend an online event, all you have to do is open your laptop.

EH: That transition is indeed very important. Next to the ritual, this also ensures people’s focus and attention. When I teach online, I always advise my students to turn on their camera and sit down for class, similar as they would do for a physical class. Also, sitting in a quiet and a peaceful place helps you to really experience online classes or events. In practice, people rarely do that. In my classes, but also at conferences, I see a lot of the people simultaneously checking their e-mail or homeschooling their children.