David holds a Chair in Event and Digital Cultures in the School of Business and Creative Industries at University of the West of Scotland and is Deputy Director of the Centre for Culture, Sport and Events (CCSE).
His research focuses on two main areas of activity. The first area of interest is the contemporary significance of events and festivals (sporting and cultural) as markers of identity and mechanisms for the achievements of wider economic, social and cultural externalities. The second area is the affordances of digital and social media in enabling (and constraining) participation in civic life, including in relation to major sport and cultural events.
David is currently Principal Investigator on two major European research projects, FESTSPACE and EventRights. The former focuses on the role of festivals and events in the generation of inclusive public space in Europe. The latter is concerned with the relationship between mega sport events and human rights.
He is the co-author of Leveraging Disability Sport Events (Routledge, 2018), Event Bidding: Politics, Persuasion and Resistance (Routledge, 2017) and Event Policy: From Theory to Strategy (Routledge, 2012) alongside co-editor of Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives (Routledge, 2017) and Research Themes in Events (2013, CABI).
Keynote Title
Festival and events, space and the (post) human touch
Abstract
Over the last two years the field of festivals and events has experienced levels of disruption that no-one could have realistically predicted. One-off and recurring cultural, sporting and business events were cancelled or postponed, with some unlikely ever to return in their pre-pandemic form. Festivals and events previously defined by their association with specific places and spaces were transformed into mediated experiences produced and accessed in digital space. While the availability of high-quality digital infrastructures enabled people to experience adapted versions of their favourite festivals and events online, the (material) urban and rural places and spaces that has previously hosted them experienced major shocks to their economic, social and cultural systems.
In this talk I explore what the disruptions of the last two years means for the field of festivals and events and the spaces that host them. Firstly, I focus on the growing significance of digital space (s) as platform to host, produce and communicate about festivals and events. I argue that, pre-pandemic, we were already well on our way to some form of (digital) hybridity in the way we produced, consumed and experienced festivals and events but that the effects of COVID-19 have accentuated and accelerated these trends. As festival and event goers we have, for some time, participated in recording already mediated experiences via our smartphones, uploading them to social channels and sharing them widely to confirm our social status and appreciation of particular taste cultures. Digital technologies were used to enhance the experience but not necessarily replace the physical encounter. Since the start of the pandemic, our festival and event experiences have been increasingly governed by technology, whether that be the platforms used to host virtual events, the infrastructures used to maintain social distance, or the production techniques used to create immersive experiences. This reminds us of the role played by nonhuman actors, including material objects, in human experience, embodiment and social relations. I explore what these transformations mean for the value of the human touch in festivals and events.
Secondly, I reflect on the implications of the pandemic for the physical spaces that have traditionally hosted festivals and events. I argue that people’s association with the places they live in, the spaces they encounter and the festivities that take place there may have been strengthened by their experiences during the pandemic. Many festivals and events are inseparable from the places and people that host them, and even during the most challenging of times over the last two years, festivities have continued to carry meaning, adapting to the restrictions in place. I consider what trends towards localism, climate crisis and changing consumer behaviour mean for the future of festivals and events in our urban environments.