Liberal Arts Faculty Lecture with Matt Foy

Overview

Come to the second Liberal Arts Faculty Lecture of the year on Thursday, Nov. 6, featuring Matt Foy, Instructor of Communication at Kirkwood! Foy will present: "Participatory Audiencing: A Riffer's History of Talking During a Movie."

As a 21st century moviegoer, we all know how we’re expected to play our roles as audience members: sit down, shut up, give all our senses to the screen in front of us, and (preferably) purchase an armload of criminally priced snack-treats. Talking during the movie? Anathema, a travesty of bad manners. The reason is obvious: if we’re talking, we can’t fully focus on the movie. We might get distracted or start thinking about something else. Is that necessarily a good thing?

Matt Foy (Ph.D., Speech Communication) has spent over a decade researching the history, artform, and cultural implications of people purposefully talking during movies. Through the lens of the art of movie riffing — a performance style in which performers deliver humorous commentary over movies — Foy will share his research exploring the history of talking during movies and what it can teach us as consumers of media, social actors, and public educators.

Join us at 11:15 a.m. in 2082 Cedar Hall on Kirkwood Community College's main campus in Cedar Rapids. This event is free and open to the public.