How a public interfaces its raison d’être: an interface analysis through the concept of cultural performance

For decades Groningen has been victim to earthquakes induced by gas drillings. In 2009 the Groningen Soil Movement (GBB) was established in order to defend the interests of Groningen citizens who are victim to these earthquakes. The goal of this research is to find out how the GBB interfaces their perception of this public issue, and how these interfaces can be understood. This study is aimed at connecting the theoretical concepts of interface and cultural performance in order to analyze interfaces in a structured and detailed manner. To reach this goal a discourse analysis of written and audio-visual material has been conducted. The analysis shows that while in GBBs written interfaces a careful and strict narrative is repeatedly presented that follows a stable script, the staged interface is where the cultural performance of the GBB really come to life. This is interesting, because exactly in this staged interface the performance derailed from the pre-arranged script. It is argued that this changing role of the script, from mediating between to resembling the background representations, is the reason the staged interface by the GBB can be considered a successful cultural performance. For future research it is recommended to take more concepts of the model of cultural performance into consideration to come to a more detailed understanding of interfaces.