Theatre criticism on Web 2.0. Publishing, sharing, authoring critique in the light of human-computer interaction. The critical dialogue of the social media.

Abstract

The migration, also due to the crisis of the printed press, of almost all critical debate to the free pages of the Web is an obvious reality. The thesis of these investigations, which derive from a broader doctoral research project that moves between mediology, theatre studies, critical theories and digital philosophies, is that the current interactive Web environment is only partially regulated by human decision-making parameters, and increasingly subject to the control of a networking system based on hardware/software duality. This paper investigates disciplines related to media sociology and digital philosophy, looking for those problematic paradigms that force the reasoning on languages and functions of criticism to consider this practice within a system of interaction between human element and mechanical organization. As a case study, we present a review in the form of an open letter published by an online newspaper, which provoked controversial reactions and challenged the role of the critic as a bearer of authority, shifting the focus from the analysis of the performance to the observation of the general crisis of the Italian theatre system. This case study highlights the critical points introduced by the formation of virtual communities of social networks, which nowadays act as a mass of influence on the view of the contemporary scene.