The Performing Arts is comprised with combinations and communication of the artists and audience in the same space and time. As the globalization is making multi-performing arts to attract different audience having many types of cultural backgrounds, ...
The Performing Arts is comprised with combinations and communication of the artists and audience in the same space and time. As the globalization is making multi-performing arts to attract different audience having many types of cultural backgrounds, the Non-verbal Performance is also becoming one of the new performing arts in the world. The Non-verbal Performance is actively trying to communicate with global audience from the various audience participation activities to the interesting stories. Since the performance communication is the process of encoding from the cast and crew and decoding from the audience in a performance, the understanding of various types of audience feedback, especially interpretation without languages, is the core to Non-verbal Performance communication strategy for the future.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how Korean Non-verbal Performance communicates with Asian audience by focusing on the Korean representative performance 'Nanta(Cookin')'. It was attempted to analyze the communication relationship by the cultural codes in Nanta with its contents and audience feedback. This study first conducted to analyze Nanta contents categorizing by the deep, narrative and surface structures derived from the communication and cultural semiotic theories. Then, it interviewed the international students in Korea representing Asian audience to understand their opinions.
As a result, Nanta attracted various audience in harmony with universal cultural values of Eastern and Western society. First, the deep structure found 'fun' codes which were derived from the upbeat sounds of Korean percussion quartet 'Samulnori' with Western performance styles. Second, the narrative structure was about the cooks set in the kitchen, this storytelling helped the audience better understand the messages of Nanta. Third, the surface structure was consist of non-verbal codes such as gesture, props, rhythmic sounds and audience participation activities to communicate with the various audience without languages. This strategy made their commercial success and the audience interested in Korean culture.
In the focusing group interview(FGI), the participants also showed similar responses to each one's as far as the contents goes. Their high profiles on the Korean culture affected watching Nanta, and was focused on the way how Nanta expresses Korean culture. But they indicated that the elements of Korean origins were rare even though the contents was so original and interesting. In addition, they gave other opinions about 'cutting vegetables' scene seemed like mistreating and wasting food, and the strict organizational hierarchy from the relationships of Nanta character reminded them of Korean social structure they are facing in the Korean life. To conclude, the participants who are comfortable with Korean culture influenced by the 'Korean Wave' expected to experience both directly and indirectly the Korean original culture through Nanta.
Therefore, this study has opened up various possibilities of the qualitative audience research by exemplifying and analyzing the actual response and interpretation of the Asian audience. It is hoped that this study will be able to help the globalization strategies of Korean Non-verbal Performance and other cultural industries to communicate effectively with various prospects of Asian and other cultural areas.