Dr. Annette Mönnich» International Colloquium on Communication (ICC) 27.07. – 01.08.2014: Communication as Performance and the Performativity of Communication

International Colloquium on Communication (ICC) 27.07. – 01.08.2014: Communication as Performance and the Performativity of Communication

Date:
Sunday, 27. July 2014, 18:00 h
Friday, 1st. August 2014, 12:00 h

Venue:
University of Muenster

Theme: "Communication as Performance and the Performativity of Communication”

The International Colloquium on Communication (ICC) is an interdisciplinary conference that invites scholars from the U.S. and Europe to present and discuss new results of research on communication. The ICC was founded in 1968 and takes place every other year. A specific feature of the ICC is its small size, with only about 25 participants. Each scholar presents a paper that is followed by a discussion among the entire group. The length of the colloquium allows additional time for interaction and dialogue. The conference will be held in English.

The general aim of the ICC is to discuss current results of research on communication and to emphasize a critical view on institutional and political contexts.

A specific aim of ICC 2014 is to stimulate research on performativity and the performative turn in communication scholarship. The focus on performance and performativity emphasizes communication as behavior, acting, and event. This focus brings attention to the material practice of doing communication, what is done in communication, and the difference it makes in our lives and institutions. The focus on Performance and Performativity can include such topics for presentation as:  

(1) Performance as technical term for “actio” in the field of rhetoric: e.g. research on verbal and non-verbal communication and factors that construct meaning, and  linguistic research on patterns of behavior in communication.

(2)  Performance as cultural performance: to broaden the research on social interaction as cultural performance (Goffman) as well as the research on the concept of habitus by discourse analysis (Foucault, Bourdieu).

a. Investigations on the role of the Internet and social media such as Facebook and blogs in the performance of the self and social movements.

b.  Investigations in journalism, photography, and in health communication drawing on the performative turn, such as alternative news sites on the Internet, interactive news discussions on the Internet, health care communication through interactive modules, discussion boards, and blogs, performativity and intercultural health communication

c.  Investigations on the performative in political discourse, especially as influenced by the new media.  

(3) Performativity as a linguistic term: research on performative utterances (Austin/Searle) to understand utterances which have performative functions in language and communication.

(4)  Performance and Performativity as terms in theatre and art: 

a. Research on Performance Art from the perspective of Performativity: The “Esthetics of Performativity” (“Ästhetik des Performativen”, Fischer-Lichte) turns the involved audience into participants and brings about a transformation for both, the performer as well as the audience. This is due to the process of their experiencing the performance.

b. To investigate communication as Performance with the analytical tool of performance analysis used by dramatics (see the keywords “staging – physical presence/ corporeality – perception – representation”) and Performativity as paradigm used by cultural studies to focus on the processes of semiotic expression, action, perception and constructing reality. What new ideas are provided by this paradigm for research on patterns of communication?

(5)  Didactics of communication, connected with “Pedagogics of Performativity” analyzes processes of interaction and dramatic actions as well as physical presence, media, and texture of the materials in education. How does this research influence the understanding of communicative competence?