El espectador en la butaca, una convención dada por sentado

(Apostillas a Take a Seat de Margit Emesz)

Abstract

Based on a reading of “Take a Seat” by Margit Emesz, we propose to reflect on the convention of the use of the seating device as a place from which expectation happens, considering the meaning that this object has for our culture and the function it fulfils in the phenomenon of aesthetic reception. We ask ourselves about the conditions of reception that are established by offering seats to performing arts audiences and, on the other hand, about what spectators venture into when they get seats. With this work we wish to socialise the reading of Emesz’s text, highlighting the value it has had for our research on new audiences and the need to look at conventions as they do: from the point of view of those who are approaching the performing arts for the first time. At the same time, we trust that reading “Take a Seat” will be a source of questions and inspiration for other restless researchers, whatever their field of knowledge, since the subject it deals with is as everyday as it is enigmatic and crosses us permanently, even without real-ising it, in all aspects of social life, as we sit in our homes, vehicles, jobs, schools and leisure spaces.