Reenactments (introduced by Sidnell, 2006 Sidnell, J. 2006. Coordinating gesture, talk, and gaze in reenactments. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 39: 377–409. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) are embodied demonstrations of past events or scenes. In this article we explore how reenactments are deployed in the course of, and indeed support work in, collaborative data analysis sessions among groups of social scientists (and primarily conversation analysts). The data used to build the analysis are drawn from audiovisual recordings of a range of data sessions involving formal and informal groupings of social scientists who themselves are analyzing video data. One way in which participants discuss and discriminate on-screen conduct is through imitating or enacting that conduct. This article examines how participants, having noticed something on-screen, set about having others see it (or see it in a particular way) through the use of reenactments, which are not a reproduction of the actions on-screen but a version of events that inevitably selects and often exaggerates certain features. In doing so we highlight some of the key differences in the design of reenactments in these data sessions, in comparison to those that feature in everyday conversational settings. These differences concern the relationship of the design of the reenactments to visible artifacts in the scene, the configuration of the interactional huddle, and the opportunities for coparticipants to progressively shape and reshape the reenactment. These all reveal the distinctive characteristics and demands of deploying reenactments in developing analytic claims.
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