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Public Emotions. Affective Collectivity in Audiences

03.05.2018 - 05.05.2018

Dritte internationale Tagung des SFB 1171 "Affective Societies. Dynamiken des Zusammenlebens in bewegten Welten" an der Freien Universtät Berlin

Organisiert von Prof. Dr. Hubert Knoblauch (Soziologie, TU Berlin) und Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch (Theaterwissenschaft, FU Berlin)

Public Emotions,

Public Emotions,
Bildquelle: Image by CAPTAIN RAJU licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Image source: Wikimedia Commons. File: Holi_Festival_2017_in_Italy.61.jpg. Graphic design: Maria Kleinschmidt 2018.

Political speeches, theatre performances, television shows, Facebook entries, music concerts, sports events, Instagram posts, religious ceremonies, court trials – these heterogeneous and in many aspects incomparable social and cultural phenomena have one thing in common: they address, require and constitute audiences. The conference “Public Emotions. Affective Collectivity in Audiences” discusses contemporary forms and activities of audiences and explores their changing roles in today’s mobile, mediatised and networked societies. Instead of reducing audiences to psychological categories, sociodemographic units, or individuals, we investigate the specific agency and collectivity of audiences. We focus on the role of affects and emotions in audiences – especially forms of affective collectivity.

The conference places special emphasis on embodied audiences in social situations and beyond. Although the distinction between “live” and mediated audiences has become more fluid – such as in public screenings and other forms of mediatisation –, as of yet there have only been a few studies on these audiences as specifically embodied and situated collectivities. The conference thus aims to clarify this phenomenon, which seems to have remained hidden behind what has been termed “the people formerly known as the audience” of mass media. Audiences are of particular importance as they overlap with what has been traditionally framed as “the public.” In fact, while audiences have been distinguished from publics by their assumed passivity, even the study of mass media publics has demonstrated the active ways in which audiences appropriate media products. With respect to diverse audiences in theatres, music shows or soccer games, their actions and behaviours become even more relevant. The conference discusses the relevance of embodied audiences in the age of globalisation, transnationalisation and digitalisation. It investigates forms of knowledge, sociality, belonging, identity, and difference created by audiences and questions their relations to the public sphere.

The conference “Public Emotions. Affective Collectivity in Audiences” focuses on how audience members act and interact with one another, with the event, the setting, and its specific socio-material spaciality (e.g. theatres, churches or stadiums). As audiences are a collective phenomenon, the conference highlights collective forms of actions and emotions and their entanglement. Special attention is drawn to the diverse forms of how audience members adjust to each other and gain collective agency with regards to the unfolding role of affects and emotions in these processes. A further aim is to address the relational affectivity underlying audience emotions, stressing their similarities and differences in a variety of cultural fields.



Weitere Informationen und Anmeldung auf der Tagungs-Homepage

Zeit & Ort

03.05.2018 - 05.05.2018

3. Mai: ICI Berlin, Christinenstr. 18/19, Haus 8, 10119 Berlin

4. und 5. Mai: Seminarzentrum FU Berlin (Keynote Hörsaal 1b), Otto-von-Simson-Straße 26, 14195 Berlin