CFP: Performance and Brand Politics seminar for CATR

[Marlis Schweitzer]

Call for Participants -- Seminar

Canadian Association for Theatre Research/ l'Association canadienne de 
la recherche théâtrale
Conference 2012, 26-29 May 2012, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid 
Laurier University, Ontario, Canada

*Performance and Brand Politics*
Seminar Organizers: Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer

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. /Body 
& Soul/ 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.

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:

- How does a particular city or company brand itself through 
performance? Conversely, how do performance companies establish 
themselves or pursue their financial goals through branding? How do 
those brands manifestthemselves and how do they circulate? What 
methodologies might we use to analyze brands and branding strategies?

- How have theatre companies historically responded to corporate 
branding strategies?

- What are the material and political consequences of aligning 
performance work with corporate brand identities (e.g. beauty industry, 
banks, etc.)? What does this alignment mean for so-called experimental 
performance?

- 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 reproduction and recirculation of brand identity?

- 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?

- 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?

- Are there other ways of thinking about the "big bad corporation"? Can 
acorporation 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?

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.

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.

Please send 250-300 word abstracts and a brief bio to organizers Laura 
Levin (Levin at yorku.ca <mailto:Levin at yorku.ca>) and Marlis Schweitzer 
(schweit at yorku.ca <mailto:schweit at yorku.ca>) by *15 January 2012*.


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