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<div>Call for Participants – Seminar</div>
<div><br>
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<div>Canadian Association for Theatre
Research/ l’Association canadienne de la recherche
théâtrale </div>
<div>Conference 2012, 26-29 May 2012, University of Waterloo
and Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada</div>
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<div><b>Performance and Brand Politics</b></div>
<div>Seminar Organizers: Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer<br>
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<div>This seminar will explore the growing importance of
“branding”
to the study of theatre and performance. As scholars
become more attentive to
the consequences of neoliberalism and late-capitalism on
art-making, it is
imperative that they closely examine branding strategies
and other corporate
practices. Most recently, issues of branding have arisen
in response to various
government initiatives to stimulate local and national
economies by drawing
upon the “creativity” and “innovation” of the cultural
sector. Meanwhile, just
as certain models of artistic activity are viewed as
motors for economic and
urban development, we also see the appropriation of
performance strategies and
theatrical works by corporate entities looking to brand
their products (e.g. <i
style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Body & Soul</i>
commissioned by Dove). This extends to university
contexts, where there is increasing pressure for
artistic programs and individual scholars to build
partnerships with big business.
While some of the buzzwords, forms of collaboration, and
policy arrangements
connected with branding are relatively new, we want to
situate these
developments within a larger history of the arts and its
relationship to
commerce. At a very basic level, it has always been
essential for emerging and
established theatre companies to project clear brand
identities in order to be
financially viable in a particular market, but the
imperative to develop and
maintain a recognizable brand identity now extends beyond
the local to a
national and international audience (e.g. Robert Lepage’s
Ex Machina as a prime
example). Looking at the politics of branding thus offers
a unique opportunity
to take up the Congress theme, “Scholarship in an
Uncertain World,” as it
explores the challenges of projecting a stable artistic
identity in an unstable
market as well as the ambivalent role of art-as-business
in historical and contemporary
economies.</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">By taking up the twinned ideas of
branding performance (e.g.
by sponsors) and performance as brand (e.g. theatre
gives a shiny new look to a
city), our seminar will initiate a discussion about the
thorny relationship between
art and capital:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- How does a particular city or
company
brand itself through performance? <span
style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Conversely,
how do performance companies establish themselves or
pursue their financial goals through branding?
How do those brands manifest<span
style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>themselves
and how do they circulate? What methodologies might we
use to analyze brands and branding strategies?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- How have theatre companies
historically
responded to corporate branding strategies?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- What are the material and political
consequences of aligning performance <span
style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>work
with corporate brand identities (e.g. beauty industry,
banks, etc.)? What does this alignment mean for
so-called experimental
performance?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- What conflicts arise when
anti-capitalist
performances are staged under the umbrella
of events that are sponsored by high capital? To what
extent can artists subvert branding practices without
becoming complicit in the <span style="mso-tab-count:1">
</span>reproduction and
recirculation of brand identity?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- How do these brands circulate and
how are they refashioned by consumers—
i.e. how do spectators labour on behalf of brands? How
are brands shored up through various forms of
affective or immaterial labour on the
part of both consumers and artists?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- How do gendered, sexualized,
classed,
and racialized identities get appropriated
for certain branding schemes? How does branding both
open and foreclose interactions with culturally marked
bodies?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- Are there other ways of thinking
about the “big bad corporation”? Can a<span
style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>corporation
tolerate or even enable an analysis of class struggle
within the work that they are sponsoring? Are fruitful
partnerships
between artists and corporate entities
possible?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In asking these kinds of questions,
we want to suggest that branding
is an important force that not only influences the
practices of individual artists
and theatre companies, but also has the power to
shape a larger cultural environment. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Seminar participants will circulate
their 12-15
page papers in late April, at which point they will be
asked to read and prepare
comments for two of the other participants’ papers. At
the conference, the six presenters
will have an opportunity to briefly introduce their
work. They will then receive
critical commentary from other seminar participants and
engage in a discussion of
issues raised by the papers. Please note
that although an audience is welcome to attend the
seminar, participants will not
be delivering papers as in a formal panel and
conversation will primarily take place
between seminar participants. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please send 250-300 word abstracts
and a brief bio
to organizers Laura Levin (<a
href="mailto:Levin@yorku.ca">Levin@yorku.ca</a>) and
Marlis Schweitzer (<a href="mailto:schweit@yorku.ca">schweit@yorku.ca</a>)
by <b>15 January 2012</b>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
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