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The Dynamic Spectator with Scott Mealey

March 28th 2019, 5:30-7:30pm

The Dynamic Spectator: Exploring simplification tactics adopted by audience members and how they get disrupted


Given the wide-range of sensory and cognitive offerings theatre makes to its audience, not to mention the significant personal baggage audiences bring into the theatre, how do spectators make sense of what they are experiencing?


For nearly two decades, an increasingly diverse group of researchers – typically in the ‘hard’ and social sciences – have begun to turn to The Dynamic Systems Theory (DST)/Dynamical Systems Process (DSP) as a way to account for how complex creatures like ourselves efficiently simplify a complex world. University of Toronto doctoral candidate, Scott Mealey, lead an exploration of the possible applications of DST/DSP to spectatorship, including the possible nature of our receptive wellsnoise, and disruptions, and its important implications on our understanding of any transformative processes that may take place within a performance setting.


Reading:

Tschacher, Wolfgang, and Martin Tröndle. "A Dynamic Systems Perspective on Fine Art and its Market." Futures 43.1 (2011): 67-75. Web. 18 Mar. 2019


Optional further reading:

Chapter 3: “Dynamic Systems: Exploring Paradigms for Change.” Thelen, Esther and Linda B. Smith. Dynamic Systems: Exploring Paradigms for Change. Cambridge, MA:: The MIT Press, 1996.


Presented at the University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus.

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