Talk/Action

Exploring the "technologies" of conversation.

TalkAction 17, Cally Spooner, c. Julian Hughes

(Photo credit: Julian Hughes)

Gary Stevens, TalkAction 4, c. Julian Hughes

(Photo credit: Julian Hughes)

Imogen Stidworthy, TalkAction 12, c. Julian Hughes

(Photo credit: Julian Hughes)

Conversation Analysis, in the words of the American Sociologist Harvey Sacks, is concerned with tearing apart conversation 'in such a way as to find rules, techniques, procedures, methods [and] maxims that can be used to generate the orderly features we find in the conversations we examine.' This interest in what might be termed the 'technologies' of conversation inspires Loughborough University's Discourse and Rhetoric Group (DARG), who situate it in a range of everyday situations. 

For Talk/Action, Radar invited three artists to develop new performances inspired by DARG's research. Extrapolating from, highlighting and playing with conversation's 'technologies', they presented one of life's most familiar features in entirely unfamiliar forms.

Artists

Imogen Stidworthy

An Introduction to BLISS for Two Voices and Chorus Read more

Cally Spooner

No holds barred, no conditions, one field Read more

Gary Stevens

Mislay Read more