Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Communication
Improvising Close Relationships: A Relational Perspective On Vulnerability, Nicholas A. Riggs
Improvising Close Relationships: A Relational Perspective On Vulnerability, Nicholas A. Riggs
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
In this dissertation, I study the way couples improvise relationships together. I define improvisation as a kind of performance that leads to an interpretive practice where people develop the meanings of their relationships as they perform. Participating in a performance ethnography, my romantic partner, myself, and three other couples reflect on the way we perform together on stage. Adapting the popular improv performance format “Armando” and utilizing post-performance focus groups, I observe how the couples strive to make meaning together and negotiate a joint-perspective about how they played. Ultimately, I argue that attending to the way a couple improvises their …
Realizing Virtuality: Tracing The Contours Of Digital Culture, Nicholas Andrew Riggs
Realizing Virtuality: Tracing The Contours Of Digital Culture, Nicholas Andrew Riggs
USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations
People connect digitally through social media, fusing their relationships with meaning in a non-space of relational potential--a translucent and fluctuating enclave where the self becomes elastic. This thesis explores how I have formed bonds in virtual space through ritual interaction. Looking at the ways I learned to use technology through the progression of a close personal relationship, I suggest that social media use is a performance of identity--a virtuality that exposes how people negotiate the digital enclosure of contemporary society. My story is one of digital nativity and reclaiming love through virtual performance. I show how these performances have had …