25.02.2019

RTG retreat 2019

This year's motto "The Dynamics of Ambiguity" led the RTG (and its guests) through three days in Bad Urach.

In 2019, too, the RTG went on its annual retreat, this time to the “Haus auf der Alb” in Bad Urach (February 22-24, 2019).Under this year’s motto “The Dynamics of Ambiguity”, three intensive and productive days gave everyone new insights into the (cognitive) modelling, production, and resolution of ambiguity over time. Three of our colleagues (Sonja Borchers, Classics; Sofiya Kartalova, Law; Elisabeth Schedel, Classics) held their status presentation and informed the RTG about the progress of their projects. Additionally, a series of papers delivered by our external guests enriched the retreat. Jörg Wesche (Essen) presented in his paper „Poetische und konventionelle Ambiguität in schlesischer Barockdichtung“ [“Poetic and Conventional Ambiguity in Silesian Baroque Poetry”] both his projects “Ambiguität und Uneindeutigkeit” and „[p]oetische und konfessionelle Ambiguität in schlesischer Barockdichtung des 17. und 18. Jhd.“ which will launch on April 1, 2019. Our former Mercator-Fellow Greg Scontras returned to talk about "RSA and Ambiguity" in a tandem talk together with Prof. Martin Butz (on "Relevance of Ambiguity, Modeling Conversation Dynamics, & Mutual Understanding"), arguing that ambiguity is necessary for social bonding and for mutual understanding. Chigusa Kurumada (Rochester) closed the event with her paper on "Ambiguity all the Way Down: Inferring Intentions from the Acoustic Signals" in which she analysed the real-time processing of ambiguities in speaker-listener-interaction, stressing the fact that milliseconds really count in the production and resolution of ambiguities in real-time communications. All these events and the productive conversations apart from them allowed the members of the RTG and its guests to discuss the various interdisciplinary aspects of “the dynamics of ambiguity” and to benefit from each other.