A Virtual Choir Ecology and the Zoom-machinic

Grushka, Kathryn; Lawry, Miranda; Sutherland, Kim; Fergusson, Charissa

doi:10.1163/23644583-bja10013

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that Zoom has been widely used as a concert platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the case for children and parents (Sandra and Kusuma, 2020), patients, caregivers, and hospital staff (Ambler et al, 2020), as well as for choirs and other groups of joint music makers who have used Zoom as a virtual rehearsal space (Grushka et al, 2021;Onderdijk et al, 2021). This previous research suggests that connectedness is a central theme when examining Zoom's efficacy (Ambler et al, 2020;Grushka et al, 2021).…”

Section: Impact Of Agency Presence and Social Context On Social Connectednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is the case for children and parents (Sandra and Kusuma, 2020), patients, caregivers, and hospital staff (Ambler et al, 2020), as well as for choirs and other groups of joint music makers who have used Zoom as a virtual rehearsal space (Grushka et al, 2021;Onderdijk et al, 2021). This previous research suggests that connectedness is a central theme when examining Zoom's efficacy (Ambler et al, 2020;Grushka et al, 2021). In the present study performers and participants did not take full advantage of Zoom's features (e.g., only two participants used Zoom's chat function), and it is likely such communicative features can be further exploited to facilitate connectedness among/between audiences and performers.…”

Section: Impact Of Agency Presence and Social Context On Social Connectednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Livestream Experiments: The Role of COVID-19, Agency, Presence, and Social Context in Facilitating Social Connectedness

et al. 2021

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Musical life became disrupted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many musicians and venues turned to online alternatives, such as livestreaming. In this study, three livestreamed concerts were organized to examine separate, yet interconnected concepts—agency, presence, and social context—to ascertain which components of livestreamed concerts facilitate social connectedness. Hierarchical Bayesian modeling was conducted on 83 complete responses to examine the effects of the manipulations on feelings of social connectedness with the artist and the audience. Results showed that in concert 1, where half of the participants were allowed to vote for the final song to be played, this option did not result in the experience of more agency. Instead, if their preferred song was played (regardless of voting ability) participants experienced greater connectedness to the artist. In concert 2, participants who attended the concert with virtual reality headsets experienced greater feelings of physical presence, as well as greater feelings of connectedness with the artist, than those that viewed a normal YouTube livestream. In concert 3, attendance through Zoom led to greater experience of social presence, but predicted less connectedness with the artist, compared to a normal YouTube livestream. Crucially, a greater negative impact of COVID-19 (e.g., loneliness) predicted feelings of connectedness with the artist, possibly because participants fulfilled their social needs with this parasocial interaction. Examining data from all concerts suggested that physical presence was a predictor of connectedness with both the artist and the audience, while social presence only predicted connectedness with the audience. Correlational analyses revealed that reductions in loneliness and isolation were associated with feelings of shared agency, physical and social presence, and connectedness to the audience. Overall, the findings suggest that in order to reduce feelings of loneliness and increase connectedness, concert organizers and musicians could tune elements of their livestreams to facilitate feelings of physical and social presence.

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Section: Impact Of Agency Presence and Social Context On Social Connectednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impact Of Agency Presence and Social Context On Social Connectednessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Livestream Experiments: The Role of COVID-19, Agency, Presence, and Social Context in Facilitating Social Connectedness

et al. 2021

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“…Interview data indicated that choirs who shifted from traditional, live performances to virtual, multi-track recorded formats during the pandemic found it difficult initially, citing barriers to participation from technological skills, costs, availability and reliability, as well as the difficulty of singing together without being able to hear one another, or problems finding quiet space to record, which ultimately negatively affected their enjoyment (Daffern et al, 2021: 6). Similarly, the experience of lockdown itself and the ‘period of personal uncertainty and anxiety about how they could sustain choir membership’ (Grushka et al, 2021: 5) contributed to difficulties in establishing a virtual choir.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Emerging research on virtual choirs has tended to focus either on the technical or technological aspects of creating a virtual choir, aimed predominantly at musicians, sound engineers and educators (See, for example, Eren and Öztug, 2020; French, 2017; Senecal and Gazda, 2010), interview data based on the affordances and constraints of that participation (See, for example, Daffern et al, 2021; Grushka et al, 2021; Hirst, 2021), or are written by conductors reflecting on their experiences of running a virtual choir (See, for example, Galván and Clauhs, 2020; Grushka et al, 2021). Carvalho and Goodyear’s (2014) discussion on the architecture of learning space in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir is unique in that in addition to participant interviews, it also describes detail of the physical and technological aspects of the virtual choir in a pre-pandemic world and, in particular, the link between real and virtual spaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The Birth of the Virtual Choir’: Exploring the multimodal realisation of the Covid-19 liminal space in a YouTube virtual choir performance

Kerry

2022

Multimodality & Society

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As countries around the world went into lockdown in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, people looked for virtual ways of reducing social isolation. Amongst these online interactions, a relatively new phenomenon – the virtual choir – grew in popularity. As part of a wider study on virtual choirs, this study analyses the multimodal performance of, and textual audience responses to, ‘The Birth of the Virtual Choir’, posted on YouTube in June 2020. The study uses a combination of Mediated Discourse Analysis (Norris and Jones, 2005) and the theoretical concept of liminality (Turner, 1974; van Gennep, 1960) as a means of understanding how one performance in this new genre was used to reflect personal crises during the pandemic and enforced lockdowns. It argues that the song mirrors a process of separation, transition and reaggregation in both time and space, consistent with rites of passages and liminal experiences, whereby social actors are isolated, use creative ways to find order to the chaos, then reintegrate into society as changed subjects. It also demonstrates how online creativity and illusion highlighted one choir’s experience on life and lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, many of which appeared to ring true for their wider audience and other virtual choirs being born into the Covid era.

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“…Choirs throughout the world have survived the onslaught of Covid-19 through the use of various technological platforms. As described by Grushka et al (2021), the usual social ecology of a choir providing friendship, support and the experience of singing together, has moved into a virtual realm.…”

Section: A Pause Becomes An Endmentioning

confidence: 99%

26 Narratives of COVID: loss, dying, death and grief during COVID-19

Borgstrom

Mallon

2022

Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Preface collection. At times, reading them has been emotionally wrenching and draining; it was beneficial to have a colleague like Sharon who could understand that. I'd also like to thank my partner, Lukas, for bringing me cups of tea as I read and edited the collection and encouraged me to get out in the sunshine to help me process the vicarious grief.Lastly, we want to thank you -the reader -for taking the time to engage with the narratives, reflections, and information within this collection. We don't know why you've decided to pick up this book, but we hope that you connect with it. Perhaps you'll see your own experiences of loss and grief reflected in the words and know you are not alone or perhaps you'll be inspired by someone else's narrative to think about your own loss in a different way or reach out to someone to share your experiences with them. Or, perhaps, you'll even write your own story.xvi Note on contentNow that the book is in your hands (or on your screen), it is up to you how you read it. You may choose to read it from cover to cover or to pick it up and selectively read essays as you flick through it. We know some readers may gravitate towards accounts that may reflect or resonate with their own experiences, whilst others may avoid those.As the title of the book suggests, much of the content is about death, dying and grief in some form. A few essays take the topic of 'loss' a bit more tangentially, as we understood that for many, the non-human losses of the pandemic -such as loss xxvi people aged up to 25. National Helpline 0800 02 888 40. Notes on terminologyThe terms COVID-19, Covid, coronavirus as well as others are all used interchangeably in this book. This is deliberate and reflects the language that is currently being used in relation to the virus and pandemic. 'During Covid-19' is often meant to indicate that something happened during the time of the pandemic (which during writing, was most of 2020 and early 2021). We have included a few clarifications on several terms that we know were used in the UK but not necessarily in other countries.The term 'frontline' was used in the UK to describes people who were providing essential services and who could not 'work from home' during the pandemic. This included many health and social care staff, as well as workers in 'essential' (e.g. food) retail and logistics, schools, and public services. At times, the term 'key worker' was also used by the UK government to denote those providing key services. The key worker label enabled access to childcare, access to schools during pandemic closure periods, and earlier access to vaccines depending on roles.The term 'lockdown' was used in the UK to denote the restrictions implemented by government to mitigate community transmission of the virus. Lockdowns were implemented as emergency measures and depending on the location, many weeks and months were spent 'in lockdown' in 2020 and 2021. At its most extreme, this included closing 'non-essential' shops and businesses, encouraging people to work and stay at...

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A Virtual Choir Ecology and the Zoom-machinic

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Livestream Experiments: The Role of COVID-19, Agency, Presence, and Social Context in Facilitating Social Connectedness

Livestream Experiments: The Role of COVID-19, Agency, Presence, and Social Context in Facilitating Social Connectedness

‘The Birth of the Virtual Choir’: Exploring the multimodal realisation of the Covid-19 liminal space in a YouTube virtual choir performance

26 Narratives of COVID: loss, dying, death and grief during COVID-19

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