Touch and talk: detailing embodied experience in the music masterclass

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses talk and touch in interaction in a musical masterclass setting. It shows how sequences of touch and talk enable the public evaluation and instruction of internal body experience through a focus on three forms of touch: “demonstrative touch,” “diagnostic touch,” and “manipulative touch.” As a consequence, it highlights the mechanisms of semiotic power in the instructional relationship as the province of private reflection (the embodied sense) is made public and available for the embodied instruction of a group of students.

KEYWORDS:

• Touch
• talk-in-interaction
• conversation analysis
• body instruction
• masterclass

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Darren Reed is a social scientist and Senior Lecturer specialising in embodied, online and device-based interaction. His background is in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, as well as technology development and design. He teaches on the Social Psychology pathway in the Sociology department.

Notes

1 The data consist of video and audio recordings. No other forms of data were collected (such as questionnaire data). This is consistent with a Conversation Analytic approach that focusses on behaviour and interaction.

2 More broadly, the epistemic “rights” to speak to and control the body of another, as they occur in detailed moments of embodied interaction, would situate such studies within the context of body pedagogics and the enculturation of the body.