Artistic Experiences and Social Interaction in Virtual Choir

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID-19 had forced choir enthusiast to swift from in-person live performance into online-based activity, virtual choir. Even though this form of performance be seen as an alternative of choir continuity during uncertain times, this practice is problematic when it comes to the absence of social interaction and the reduction of artistic experience because of digital technology. The virtual choir created new paradigm of artistic achievement in choir with the presence of digital audio workstation where all voices are treated as database and audio engineer has a big role in creating the final artistic result. This research tries to explore the phenomena through exploratory sequential approach employed 65 singers, 14 conductors, and 5 audio engineer (N=84) using quick online survey and in-depth interview. The result showed the three main case and the exploration on (1) the role of audio engineer as artistic creator to take over the singers and conductor, (2) the reduction of artistic experience due to digital approach, and (3) the absence of in-person social interaction in providing social experience as well as achieving artistic goals.