Performance and Conflict II : LISTENING, PERFORMANCE, AND CONFLICT

Performance and Conflict II :
LISTENING, PERFORMANCE, AND CONFLICT

a Practice-Based Research Symposium
November 4 - 7, 2019
at Concordia University in Montreal

This symposium is about listening in the context of performance methodologies in which the audience is addressed as listener of personal memories. Particular attention will be paid to memories related to sites of conflict and post-conflict. The symposium draws on content that has emerged from the international conference Performance and Conflict, held at the University of Lincoln in 2018. This second iteration will reignite discussions that were carried out in the first conference, and its smaller, more intimate configuration (max. 25 participants) is designed to benefit this year’s focus on listening.

WHY LISTENING?

A variety of concepts have been used to refer to the types of listening that are at work in the context of artistic methodologies, especially those in which personal stories are shared and therefore become a piece of performance for a given audience. Such notions include ‘empathic listening’, ‘deep listening’, ‘active listening’, and ‘embodied listening’. It is claimed that these modes of listening bring about effects that go beyond entertainment. For instance, it has been demonstrated that empathic listening in the context of Playback Theatre ‘promotes healing’ and thus, is a mode of performance that can effectively be applied in contexts such as supportive spaces for mental health needs and sites of conflict and post-conflict. Similar claims and applications have been made in relation to the Theatre of the Oppressed. There are, however, many more approaches within disparate fields including oral history performance, sound installation, transitional and restorative justice performance, peace-building performance, verbatim theatre, documentary theatre, autobiographical performance, experimental performance, and so called ‘conversational art’ in which the same basic principle operates: audiences are addressed as listeners of personal, often traumatic memories and thus, become subjects, fellow citizens and human beings rather than distant ‘spectators’. The symposium Listening, Performance, and Conflict explores the powers of listening in the context of samples of the said performance methodologies.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

What: Listening, Performance and Conflict Practice-Based Research Symposium
When: Between Monday, Nov. 4th and Thursday, Nov. 7th, 2019
Where: Montreal (QC, Canada)
Concordia University’s Acts of Listening Lab part of Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling
J.W. McConnell (LB) Building 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-1042-03 Montreal, QC H3G IM8
 

Registration fee:

Regular: 130 $ (CAD) + taxes
Student: 90 $ (CAD) + taxes

This fee covers:

· Access to all Symposium activities: talks, workshops and performances.
· Opening reception drinks and treats (6PM Nov. 4), Breakfast snacks and coffee every morning (Nov. 5-6-7) and Farewell dinner at restaurant (6PM Nov. 7)