Half-empty museums, galleries and cinemas sound luxurious, but there will be consequences
Space is a commodity. Cinema, as a cheap-to-enjoy, democratising artform, depends on crowds of people enjoying the same experience. Restaurants work by fitting the maximum number of covers compatible with a pleasant customer experience into their premises. Blockbuster exhibitions generate valuable income for galleries when they attract proper, elbows-out crowds. University lectures offer a convenient way of teaching a large number of students in a single space at once.
Sometimes this makes for a less than pleasant experience. Not everyone wants to be so close to their neighbours in a cafe that they can hear every nuance of their conversation; seeing art can be marred when it becomes a choreographic game, requiring neck-stretching, ducking and side-stepping. Many readers pine for absolute unpeopled silence in a library, and the close-quarters crunch of popcorn or shine of a phone screen in the cinema is a universal irritant.
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