Audience(s) SPRING 2014
Scholarship, art, writing, and performance pre-suppose an audience. Conversely, many of the sources and evidence that lead to these productions (whether physical, visual, or textual) were created with an audience in mind. Of course social interactions such as marriage, politics, and judicial interventions likewise pre-suppose an audience and may be open to the same dynamic. The CFH theme “Audience(s)” asks us to explore the phenomena of the audience from multiple perspectives. How does audience shape the form and function of our work? Is the desire to reach a wider audience consistent with our academic or artistic goals? How should we reflect on the relation of intellectuals to their audience or audiences in general? What can the audience tell us about past or present works of scholarship, theater, music, politics or art? Does the audience shape the work and intention of the author or is the reception by the audience the moment where meaning happens? In what ways are we able to understand either the intended or actual audience for a work? What effect do existing normative practices have on the role of audience in respect to those who do not conform to them (i.e. those who do not conform to existing conventions of masculine or feminine for instance)? In addition we are eager to explore the ways in which audience behavior is changing in the new media environment and the ethical and social ramifications associated with measuring audience behavior on new media platforms. How might an understanding of multiple audiences help or complicate the issues raised above?
Lectures
All lectures begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted, and are held in the Daniel Family Commons, which is located in the Usdan University Center.
Habits of Leaking, Politics of Forgiving
2/3/2014
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun • Professor of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University
Escape Strategies and the Art of Non-Pragmatic Thinking
2/10/2014
Katherine Brewer Ball • Wesleyan University
Disinterested Interest: Toward A Theory of Political Publics
2/17/2014
Javier Castro-Ibaseta • Wesleyan University
Empress Jingū’s Magical Conquest of Korea:
A Legend of Multiple Uses
2/24/2014
Jonathan Best • Wesleyan University
The Afterlives of Edgar G. Ulmer:
Rediscovering a Filmmaker at the Margins
3/3/2014
Noah Isenberg • Professor and Chair of Media Culture at Eugene Lang College-The New School for Liberal Arts
The Readers’ Eye
3/31/2014
William Sherman • Professor of Renaissance/Early Modern Studies at University of York
Lessons from the Land of Godlessness: How Atheism Changed the Spiritual Life of Soviet Society
4/7/2014
Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock • Wesleyan University
Moved by the Motion
4/14/2014
Wu Tsang
The Black Circuit: Race, Performance, and Spectatorship in Black Popular Theater
4/21/2014
Rashida Shaw • Wesleyan University
Shakespeare’s Audients
4/28/2014
Natasha Korda • Wesleyan University
Are People Analog?
05/05/2014
Jonathan Sterne • Professor, Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University