Conference on the relational aspects of dramaturgy

Dramaturgy has, in its traditional sense, a fourfold meaning: the text dramaturgy, the performance dramaturgy, the production dramaturgy and the dramaturgy of the theatre house/performance venue within its surroundings. On the 15th and 16th of March 2012, a number of academic and artistic partners organise a conference about the relational aspects of dramaturgy, which has as a main interest the levels of production processes and their outcome, the performances. The main questions / points of interest are: Is there a mutual relationship between these two modes, or levels, of dramaturgy given? How do the production processes, in particular the dramaturgical processes, and the performances resemble each other?

The conference aims at an exploration of the mutual relations of dramaturgical work/the labour of dramaturgy in production processes and dramaturgies as 'arrangements' of theatrical signs (textual dramaturgies, visual, acoustic and inter/medial dramaturgies, body dramaturgies ...). In the lectures performance analysis can, or should, be linked with some of the following points of interest and questions:

• the labour of dramaturgy: What is s/he doing
• the mediatized or live situations that constitute the dramaturgical work: How are 'liveness' and 'media' being used in contemporary dramaturgical work?
• the dramaturgies of voice and sound: How are voice and sound being used in dramaturgic work?
• the dramaturges bodily actions and capacities: What kinds of bodies (body norms) are at work in dramaturgy?
• the ways of cooperating and decision making that bring forth the artistic team: Which modes of cooperation and decision making are presently being developed in dramaturgic processes?
• the changing conditions of artistic labour within the New Economy: Which dramaturgies of economy are presently at work?
• transnational processes of globalization, migration, dis- and re-location, of both dramaturges and performances: How do they presently constitute dramaturgic processes?
• dramaturgy in the 'teaching machine': Which pedagogies in dramaturgy are currently evolving, especially in international student groups?

The conference consists of a more 'academic' part (as announced above) and presentations by artists and students of the University College Ghent, plus talks with invited dramaturges. Further, the organizers will make sure that other vital performances that are being shown at Flemish performance venues during these days will be accessible. Thus, the conference will be an encounter of academic and artistic practitioners.

Practical details
Date: 15-16 March 2012
Venue: Royal Academy of Fine Arts, University College Ghent - Louis Pasteurlaan 2, 9000 Ghent
Registration Fee: students (worldwide): € 5,00 / other: € 15,00. Registration is required, and can be done by filling out this form until 07/03/2012.

This conference is a cooperation between the Research Centre S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts & Media) at Ghent University, the Free University Brussels and the University College Ghent. Furthermore, it is organized in collaboration with the 'Working Group Dramaturgy' within the 'Society for Theatre Research' (convenors: Peter M. Boenisch, Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner, Katharina Pewny).

www.theaterwetenschappen.ugent.be