Funded through a variety of complex economic models, street arts in Europe are generally free at the point of demand and available in public spaces without the specific cultural connotations of theatres and galleries. As such it can be argued that they are the most democratic live art form and intrinsically radical in the way they disrupt the construction of public space. Using this frame: the discourse on the production of social space is it true that, as Lefebvre says: “Space is political!” (2009: 179)?This paper aims to give a critically and professionally informed view of the relationship between the populist requirements of working to non-captive audiences and the variety of resultant dramaturgical models and aesthetics within a street arts framework. In particular it analyses the tensions between the needs of establishing and maintaining an audience who can walk away, the desires of cultural gatekeepers for increasingly innovative and challenging work and the demands on artists to source funding under an increasingly instrumentalist cultural policy. In the last decade the traditions of street arts dramaturgy, developed since the 1960’s have been challenged with new models often borrowed from indoor disciplines such as contemporary dance. This paper uses 25 years of professional experience as well as published literature, interview material and documentation of case studies to map significant recent movements within the sector.The question is posed: are there unique and specific popular dramaturgical modes related to the complex requirements of unplanned spectatorship by potentially distracted non captive audiences, or as the form matures should audiences be required to develop different attitudes and habits in order to engage with and interpret the work?
JAMES; id_orcid 0000-0003-3941-2646 MACPHERSON (Wed,) studied this question.