“You’re putting words in my mouth!”: Interaction as mutual ventriloquation

“No dig, No Ride”: The Communicative Constitution and Consequences of Imperfect Authoritative Texts in Fluid Collective Organizing

“…Collectively viewing these unintended effects (e.g., restricting newcomers, impeding participation, perpetuating conflict) lends further empirical support to the ventriloqual nature of communication (Cooren, 2010) and Cooren’s (2004) claim that texts can sever themselves from their original circumstances and “act” in unanticipated ways. A “mutual ventriloquation” (Cooren et al, 2022) occurs when people make the authoritative text say certain things through them (i.e., ventriloquize), but those hearing or observing the authoritative text are also part of the ventriloquism in that they may interpret the text in a way that counters the original speaker’s intent. That is, those interpreting the text also ventriloquize it by making the text say something else.…”

Ventriloquism as Method: Writing Differently and Thinking Philosophically

“…The method of ventriloquism sets up its issue of identity as "a separation of self from self, and then identifies the place between the two, in which multi-voiced exchange or conversation can take place" (Goldblatt, 2006(Goldblatt, /2013. Ontoepistemically, ventriloquism provides a useful conceptual lens (Cooren et al, 2022), enabling us to produce that which cannot be thought, and the possibility of creating new fields of experience by which subjectivities are (re)produced. By deconstructing a marginalization of the abject through various embodiments of knowledge, writing abjection lies in democratizing epistemologies that I am feeling my desire is too difficult to tell from despair.…”