Audience & Spectatorship: from Audience to Participant (2025/2026: periode 2)

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Cursusdoel

After successful completion of this course, the student has:
  • developed a critical understanding of how performances (in the broadest sense, inside the theatre and outside, in other media and in public life) construct spectatorship;
  • developed a critical understanding of how the address presented by performances invites modes of looking, allows for modes of engaging and behaving (while excluding others), and suggests interpretations;
  • practiced with several concepts that can be deployed in critical analysis;
  • developed the ability to critically analyze the construction of spectatorship in a concrete case and present this analysis in speaking, writing, and in action.

Vakinhoudelijk

How to relate to an audience, how to make them think, watch, feel and experience, is a fundamental question for makers and performers of all kinds, from actors and dancers to politicians and activists, to architects and designers of public space, to advertisers and brands. This question has been answered in many different ways and we see makers employing very different strategies. Audiences have been pampered as well as offended, placed in the dark, immersed in participatory experiences, equipped with headphones and VR goggles, hailed in public space, addressed collectively or individually, and targeted by algorithms and branding.

This course looks at the ways that theatre and media artists explore and experiment with spectatorship, witnessing, and participation. We consider how these works construct the position of the spectator – where we look from and how we look – and also make implicit or explicit assumptions about who is watching and why. This can include both reinforcing and challenging processes of gendering, racialization, and othering.

Theatre and media art is a special case where spectatorship can be scrutinized and played with to produce different effects, as the material with which the art is working. But we expand from here to think about spectatorship and participation in other social and cultural contexts, including museums and the histories we tell, and shopping and the way we ‘perform consumers’. We encourage you to use the knowledge of this course to ask yourself how all kinds of social, political, religious performances address their audiences, position them, suggest interpretations, associations and ways of understanding?

This course is part of the specialisation Theatre and dance and the specialisation Participatory Cultures: Civic Engagement in Media and Performance. It builds on knowledge and skills introduced and trained in the core profiles (basispakketten) 1 and 2 of Media and Culture. In this specialisation students deepen their historical and theoretical knowledge of theatre and dance and train academic skills that are specific to the field, such as particular research methods and professional skills.

LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major, need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment. See for more information: https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/

Theatre and exhibition visits
This course includes required visits to 2 or 3 selected theatre productions and/or exhibitions, some of which will take place outside of class times and require students to purchase tickets.

Aanvullende informatie

This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you

- are a student in the BA Media and Culture and this course is part of your specialisation (verdiepingspakket)

- are a student in the BA Liberal Arts and Sciences or Taal- en Cultuurstudies and this course is part of your specialisation (kernpakket)

- are an exchange student and meet the course’s entry requirements

In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.


Early Exit option for international exchange students (5 ECTS)
Exchange students who are required to return to their home university before January, are allowed to choose an Early Exit option for this course. The Early Exit option means that students can finish the course before Christmas break, receiving 5 ECTS for the course. Students must make arrangements with the course coordinator at the start of the course.

Werkvormen

Hoorcollege

Werkcollege
Toelichting

During the seminar meetings we discuss assigned readings and investigate how they can be used for analysis of examples. We will also meet with guests from the work field.

Bijdrage

Active participation during the meetings and peer-feedback. Small groups of students investigate the construction of spectatorship (in theatre, media or public space) and create a visual presentation that will be presented and discussed.

Voorbereiding

In preparation of the seminar meetings students study the assigned readings and make small assignments. We will also visit several performances.

Toetsing

Paper

Verplicht | Weging 60% | Minimum cijfer 5,5 | ECTS 4,5

Description of the object of analysis, selection and understanding of theories and concepts, employment of theories and concepts as analytical tool, quality of analysis (observation and reflection), quality of writing.

Presentatie

Verplicht | Weging 40% | ECTS 3

Presentation of the case study, handling of theories and concepts, quality of analytical observations, structure of the presentation, style of the presentation.

To be announced in course manual.

Ingangseisen en voorkennis

Ingangseisen

Er is geen informatie over verplichte ingangseisen bekend.

Voorkennis

This course presupposes basic knowledge of history and theory of theatre and dance and basic experience with dramaturgical analysis. You are expected to be able to read and process academic texts; to write a coherent and well-structured text, using academic idiom; to be acquainted with either the Chicago/MLA system for referencing and annotating literature; to be able to search and select sources in the university library’s online databases.

Voorkennis kan worden opgedaan met

Basic knowledge of theory and analysis of theatre and dance, and dramaturgical analysis can be obtained in the course Inleiding Theater en dans. A basic understanding of how different media have different ways of telling or showing stories, and therefore different ways of addressing their audiences can be obtained in the course Vertellen en verbeelden/Storytelling.

Voertalen

  • Engels

Cursusmomenten

Gerelateerde studies

Thema's

Tentamens

Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus

Verplicht materiaal

Er is geen informatie over de verplichte literatuur bekend


Aanbevolen materiaal

  • LITERATUUR
    Reading material will be available online

Opmerkingen

Voorrangsregels

Coördinator

A. Marschall a.marschall@uu.nl

Docenten

A. Marschall a.marschall@uu.nl

Inschrijving

Deze cursus is open voor bijvakkers. Controleer wel of er aanvullende ingangseisen gelden.

Naar OSIRIS-inschrijvingen
Permanente link naar de cursuspagina
Laat in de Cursus-Catalogus zien