In the latest version of Nordic Theatre Studies (“Theatre and Language”) Anna Lawaetz, Christina Østerby, and Nina Gram from A Suitcase of Methods write about our search for a space for conversation. We describe our studies on how the conversation space during audience conversations affect the knowledge produced in these conversations.

As usual, this qualitative setup is small, and as we mention in the article, it is difficult to make unambiguous conclusions within this field and with this setup. Nevertheless, our studies gave us interesting insight into the importance of the conversation space. In order to communicate our findings in a simple way we created a table, which illustrates which topics (the production, the personal experience, the brand/the institution) the audience is more likely to talk about when placed in three different conversation settings.

It turns out that the audience is more likely to talk about the production and their immediate experience, when placed in auditorium – in the place where they had the experience moments before.
When placed in a somewhat neutral meeting room the conversation will revolve around the brand or the institution or the some extend elements of the production regarding formation etc.

Finally, when going for a walk with the audience they might talk about their personal experiences with performance art and culture and their life world in general. The numbers on the side of the table show the prioritized order in which the setting promotes the specific topic showed on top.

Read more about the model and our findings in the article “Searching for a Space for Conversation” here.