Compiled by Emily Hofstetter & Bryanna Hebenstreit, with reports from Søren Sandager Sørensen, Tilly Flint, & Bogdana Huma
The final day of ICCA23 started early with presentations opening at 8.30am, though that did not deter the enthusiasm.
Awards
The previous evening saw the ISCA awards announced, and with all our congratulations to the awardees, we’d like to (re)mention the Best Student Paper award, as the winner presented their paper on Day 4! Winner Kristina Eiviler gave their presentation on silence and the making of mutual silence non-accountable in venerated places, so we could all see the award-winning work.
Paper and Panels – Highlights from the Ground
In this section, we’d like to lift up some of the papers that we attended or came across on social media platforms (though perhaps fewer than in the previous days, as a new Twitter-based limitation hindered our reporting team from seeing as many posts as before).
For example, several posters enjoyed Francesco Possemato’s presentation on temporality.
(Tweet/photo by Rein Ove Sikveland). Francesco Possemato presents on temporality when using augmentative and alternative communication devices.
One of the panels, Strain and exertion in interaction (Leelo Keevallik & Emily Hofstetter), discussed from various angles the way our bodies display effort and physicality – we saw presentations on instructing transitional actions in boxing (Misao Yanagimachi), how parents attribute and respond to infant strain (Iris Nomikou & Emily Hofstetter), where to place emphasis and bodily strength in fan dancing (Eiko Yasui), how response cries are integrated into cheering and manage as-of-yet inconclusive events in hockey audiences (Adrian Kerrison), and how strain grunts are accountable for their volume and provide a members’ gloss on the reserves of the body (Edward Reynolds). These presentations focused our attention on how the body in a kinaesthetic sense is organised in interaction.
(Slides by Edward Reynolds, original photo Tilly Flint) Edward Reynolds presents on the (at least) dual nature of strain grunts, in displaying both effort and stance towards an event.
In the panel “Using Conversation Analysis for examining extended timeframes and identifying overall structural organisations” (Anna Vaatanen & Mirka Rauniomaa), Yeji Lee presented her work titled “The Practices of Recycling in the Classroom: The series of X as a gestalt-contexture”. This looked like a fantastic presentation and close to our hearts as instructors in the classroom as well as researchers. We can’t wait to see the paper that comes out of this research!
(Tweet/photo by Üwe-Alexander Küttner). Yeji Lee’s presentation on the ‘contextures’ or overall structural organization of a classroom activity.
The Food Practices panel (Sally Wiggins & Lorenza Mondada) was received with excitement and fostered good discussion, including how mealtimes involve massive coordination for educating and (re)indexing moral eating and food enjoying behaviour, and the difficulties when asymmetries in competence (be it physical or behavioural) arise. The panel included presentations on: the coordination practices to open a meal with a joint climax of attention when saying ‘kampai’ (cheers) (Mizuki Koda); the practices involved in initiating a first taste of a food with children at preschool meals (Sally Wiggins et al.); how caregivers use mealtimes as an opportunity to engage in joint affectual alignment on food with people with dementia (Ali Reza Majlesi et al.); how disgust sounds (as opposed to words) allow participants to blur the trouble source for the disgust, whether it is the self or the food (Leelo Keevallik & Sally Wiggins); and how waitresses at high-end restaurants use opportunities to explain the cultural and design elements of the food without intervening too much in eating (Takeshi Hiramoto).
(Slides by Mizuki Koda, original photo by Bogdana Huma). Mizuki Koda gives the summary of a talk on achieving ‘kampai’ (cheers) at the opening of meals.
Further panels included ‘Personality in interaction’ (Emmi Koskinen & Anssi Peräkylä; which undoubtedly gave excellent discussion on Prof. Peräkylä’s plenary), and ‘Managing risk and harm in social interaction’ (Emma Tennent & Ann Weatherall, including work on assessing allergy risks in children), among several others, so the work continued hard on the final day.
The Plenary: Joe Blythe
(Slides by Joe Blythe, original photo Tilly Flint) Opening slide of Blythe’s plenary, featuring multiple pointing gestures in different physical formations of engagement.
The capstone to this wonderful conference was Joe Blythe’s plenary “Pointing it out”. Blythe dedicated his talk to Adam Kendon, who not only pioneered the field of visible conduct, many of the topics related to Blythe’s talk, but also made recordings of Indigenous Australian languages. The presentation focused on the many uses of pointing, often illustrated by speakers of Murrinhpatha, but also with the help of other languages. By considering pointing an “angular vector”, pointing was connected to gaze, described as a “possible point” that provides a direction for free.
The presentation provided cases of pointing used for recruitment, location and person reference. Based on the co-occurence of linguistic material and pointing, proximal demonstratives such as ‘here’ could then be glossed as “look at me for a possible vector”. The cases that focused on references to location were also aided by a system for transferring pointing in interaction to a map of the surrounding area, thereby showing just how precisely interactants are able to point.
(Slides by Joe Blythe, original photo Tilly Flint). Blythe explaining how the central space between participants in F-formation, the ‘O-space’ forms a default deictic referent for ‘here’.
Finally, the talk also connected pointing and gaze to the use of kinship terms. Since they must be understood in relation to the speaker, kinship terms can be learned by children through the help of pointing and thereby referring to people, but also by allocating the turn to others whose talk reveals how a kinship term may be the same word, but not refer to the same person (in contrast to names) – and turn allocation is also achieved through pointing and gaze. Interestingly, it was mentioned that touch – the topic of Xiaoting Li’s plenary talk earlier in the conference – was surprisingly rare in the conversations that Joe Blythe had worked with.
Overall, it was shown that many things are managed by pointing, and argued that face-to-face conversation is the true primordial site for human sociality, upgrading earlier statements in the literature.
Leaving ICCA & Australia
The sadness at the upcoming end of the conference was palpable even from the start of the day, with participants posting their favourite views and newly acquired morning commutes.
(Tweet & photo by Samuel Schirm).
Truly, the delightful ferry rides will be missed, as they give a beautiful view of the city and occasional bats flying across the river at dusk.
At closing, participants’ spirits were high and they expressed their appreciation for the rigorous academic inquiry of the past week, joy at meeting old friends and creating new connections, and excitement for the next ICCA in 2026 in Edmonton, Canada. Our field reporters gathered impressions from the attendees. Appreciation for the community was strong, with Agnes Löfgren highlighting the friendly community as she reflected on how the conference had been very nice, while Maria Stubbe remarked that the conference showed that the field is “growing and vibrant”.
For some it was their first time at ICCA; Carmen Amalia Del Río Villanueva remarked that this was an excellent learning opportunity as there is little CA in her home country of Peru. For others it was a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues and make new ones; Verónica González Temer reflected on how welcoming the community is to new and seasoned researchers and the value of being able to share research interests without needing to justify our methodology. There was also great enthusiasm for (finally) seeing people in person, and Jeff Robinson and Robert Prettner both agreed that the Cocktail Party Mixer was a lovely way to socialise and a highlight of the conference. There is robust agreement from attendees that the organisers did a fantastic job with one of our field’s defining conferences.
Photo by Betül Çimenli of Betül with Cynthia Hicban
Goodbye for now! We wish everyone safe travels home! An enormous thank you to everyone who organized the conference, and a further huge thank you to everyone who contributed to these blog posts (and a particular thank you to Marina Cantarutti for organizing and leading the effort). They have been an invaluable resource and community connection for us at home, and we hope you enjoy having a bit of a record of ICCA2023. See you soon!