Improvisation

Building on tropes of " Americanist abstract-art " and " improvisational African-American-art " that emerged as systems of quilt evaluation in the 1970s, this book promotes recognition of a distinctive vernacular cross-racial-group quilt aesthetic. Author-collector Roderick Kiracofe presents about one hundred forty five quilts and quilt-tops chosen not for traits that suggest a maker who had extensive time, money, and needlework skill, but for graphic designs that are " quirky " and " improvisational, " have " soul and self-expression, " are " bold " and " real, made to be used, " that " break the rules " and are " sculptural " (the latter referring to quilts that are held together with bits of string or yarn rather than quilting stitches) (12-14). Given that traits such as variable (scrap-friendly) color schemes and vernacular design and construction methods place most of these pieces in a thrift-and-necessity-oriented utility-quilt tradition, their makers probably would be surprised to see them cast here as art in fine photographs and eight scholarly essays. However, two autobiographical essays speak to the rural southern context that spawned many of the works. Most pieces are anonymous, but about one hundred thirty are listed with locations (often just a state name) where they were made or " found, " about forty are listed with the maker's name, and about fifteen are listed as having African American makers. There is no information on white maker ethnicity although improvisational quilt traits have been attributed to Anglo-Appalachian and Scots Irish American makers. Of the total pieces shown here, about ninety four (65 percent) are listed in southern states (about forty of them from Alabama), 37 in northern states, one as " possibly Canada, " and 13 unknown.

If music education is to respond to the skills and needs of 21st-century music learners, innovative learning paradigms must be explored. This dissertation reports a research-creation approach for the development of a framework for Creative Music Learning with Technology (CMLT), which emphasizes a process of learning to interact creatively with music. Theoretical analysis of improvisation pedagogy and technology for learning to improvise provide the foundation for creative experimentation. An examination of existing technologies reveals a lack of available tools for cultivating a creative disposition to musicianship. As a result, a prototype application was built for iPad and iPhone based on the principles of the CMLT framework. The software is at once a tool for developing musical understanding and for exploring creative freedom in music. A two-phased study of middle school instrumentalists and expert teachers examined the effectiveness of the prototype. In the first phase, seven expert music teachers and eight middle school instrumental students participated in user testing, revealing that the prototype effectively engaged users in learning many key objectives of improvisation pedagogy. In the second phase, six middle school students reported increased confidence after using the prototype for four weeks. Results suggest there is a strong potential for the framework for CMLT to positively enhance creative music learning.

This research carried out at The School of Music, University of Leeds, is a performance-based study of improvised music, where my main instrument is the alto saxophone. I am looking at a variety of ‘architectonic’ concepts and structural organisations that inform creative space for musical improvisation. Over the last three and a half years I have performed and recorded a series of pieces, where the structural makeup of the music acts as a catalyst for musical improvisation. Specifically, I have concentrated on solo performance, the duo format, improvising to silent film, as well as continuous, long-term collaboration with an established group of improvisers.

The main focus of the portfolio is a varied look at improvised music through the subjective input of my performance. Thus, although I view this as a phenomenological study of improvised music as an experienced phenomenon, where the recorded material becomes a case study of a highly individual approach to improvisation, the outcome also informs a more generic philosophy of improvised music.

I view musical performance – and specifically improvisation – as a highly individual sphere accessible only through the individual improviser. The topic is often viewed as elusive to general research, as musical improvisation always forms an intricate part of the subjective approach to performing, where the improvisational object cannot be separated from individual musical thought. However, by recognizing the individuality in musical performance and perception, and undertaking research based on my own playing, I arrive at a generic philosophical model to musical improvisation constructed around the individual performer at the core.

The study is an attempt to demystify improvisational elements in music, looking at the skill of improvising with an equally pragmatic and philosophical approach. The written commentary accompanying the recorded portfolio is therefore both a direct scrutiny of my improvisational approaches, as well as a phenomenological exploration of the improvisational elements in music.

The present study sought to identify relationships between musical features of music therapy improvisations and clients ’ level of mental retardation, using a computationally-based method of analysis. 216 improvisations, contributed by 50 clients, were collected in MIDI format. Clients were divided into four groups according to their level of diagnosed mental retardation: 1 = none, 2 = mild, 3 = moderate, 4 = severe or profound. 43 client-related musical features were automatically extracted from their improvisations in the MATLAB computer environment and entered into a series of linear regression analyses as predictors of clients ’ level of mental retardation. The final model, which contained nine significant musical variables, accounted for 67 % of the variation in clients ’ level of mental retardation. Specifically, level of mental retardation was best predicted by temporal elements of the music relating to note duration, note density, articulation, and amount of silence.

Corresponding with the aesthetic of bir'yun or 'shimmering brilliance' created by the cross-hatching in Yolŋu painting, manikay (song) might also be characterised by a play of colour and movement, generated through the heterophonic interweaving of voices. While bir'yun might be considered a technique that generates emotion or a sense of beauty, the perception of bir'yun is decidedly more than the aesthetic. Bir'yun encompasses constitutional, political and educational dimensions, affirming Wägilak identity and purpose through an interplay of difference, in the diverse voices that enfolded together on the ceremonial ground (bambula). As the experience of bir'yun is enriched by new voices and colours, a productive approach to collaboration between Yolŋu and Balanda (non-indigenous) Australians is suggested: through mutually enriching conversation, a living interplay of voices is generated that brings life to the whole.

This paper extends out of 10 years of music teaching with Daniel Wilfred and our exploration of 'openings' within manikay for collaborative performance.

Presented at the 19th Symposium on Indigenous Music and Dance, National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia

Residencia en #Eufònic2016
August 5, 2016
|
Atilio Doreste
Residencia de Artistas de Balada, Eufònic. La idea era preparar un dèrive performatifs (metales vs madera) en el Delta de Ebro durante la celebración de este evento. Es así como pasé los últimos días del pasado mes de agosto explorando el lugar, especialmente los edificios y máquinas agrícolas en desuso, sus resonancias y paisajes sonoros. Los grandes eucaliptos se encuentran en medio de las extensísimas planicies de los arrozales (allá se arriman los oxidados remolques antiguos), y son prácticamente la única sombra para caminante. Son especialmente remarcables los restos de altas palmeras canarias diseccionadas y quemadas por la acción destructiva del picudo rojo. Los arrozales en esta época están en pleno verdor, y las noches se tiñen de intensos sonidos de aves, anfibios e insectos. Una experiencia maravillosa a plena dedicación que han dado lugar a un extenso archivo de sonidos, imágenes para el desarrollo de futuras obras, acciones, y muestras. Invito a aquellos que puedan acercarse a la zona de Balada (punto de encuentro) el día cuatro de septiembre, que es cuando realizaré una serie de performances en la interpretaciones de estos lugares con amplificación y megafonía.
http://www.eufonic.net/

http://www.auriculab.net/#!Residencia-en-Eufònic2016/colb/57a486d10cf2fe8b48c4d3fe

Book Chapter (14) in King, A., Himonides, E. and Ruthmann, A. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Music, Technology, and Education (London: Routledge)

The concern of this chapter is the pedagogical value of technology-based improvisation in University music programmes. In essence the chapter is a call to remember the pedagogical imperatives and values of improvisation in music education in the light of the impact of advanced technocratic trends in education and changes in student competencies and kinds of literacy related to technology.

In this chapter, Hayes explores the conventions that govern the pratice of improvisation in flamenco and postmodern dance. The ideal body that results from the training in each form has a specific configuration of gendered, sexualized, racialized and class attributes. The way in which movement, meaning and virtuosity are expressed can be compared as similar negotiations of improvisational structures. Hayes characterizes these negotiations as intelligent and intelligible, in order to understand the dancing body as articulate without opposing the body and the intellect and without the opposition of the "natural" to the "artificial."

This paper describes an approach for teaching marketing skills to tertiary students through improvisational theatre experiences. These skills of communication, creativity, ambiguitytolerance,
team building and problem-solving have been identified by researchers to be crucial in the marketing field and often missing in marketing education. While some researchers have already established a link between marketing and theatre, this paper builds upon that literature to suggest an improvisational model that aligns marketing education and employers’ expectations. This improvisational model was implemented in one graduate and one undergraduate marketing class and data was collected. A preliminary analysis of the data indicates that students see this model as an effective method for learning marketing skills.

A two-day workshop investigating the role improvisation plays in various creative endeavors: theatre, cooking, design, music, writing and theory. Conceived and organized by Fabian Goppelsroeder, Feodor-Lynen Fellow at the Department of Germanic Languages. Presenters include the University of Chicago’s Mwata Bowden, Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, David Levin, Jennifer Scappettone, and Noah Zeldin, as well as Dana Gooley (Brown University), Dieter Mersch (Zurich University of the Arts), Berlin-based designer Werner Aisslinger, and the ensemble dance-theater Lucky Plush (Chicago).

Neste artigo expomos as contaminações entre devires-improvisadores e poéticos, entre criação de dança e criação de palavras e sentidos. Athikté, a musa-bailarina de Valéry, dialoga com a autora por meio da improvisação de dança, e deste encontro saltam afetos que co-movem o poeta Luis Serguilha. Todos são então transformados pelos poderes virtuais que circulam entre planos de composição distintos. A dança modifica a palavra e esta lhe reenvia novos sentidos. Metamorfose. Olhares atmosféricos se enamoram e se conectam pela potência dos afetos invisíveis tornados visíveis nos movimentos da dançarina, que se insinuam entre as palavras descodificadas do poeta. Improvisação. Não são mais os desenhos do corpo no espaço-tempo, nem a linearidade do discurso organizado, mas forças intensivas que circulam na imanência deste encontro, mudando a percepção da improvisadora e do poeta. Palavras-chave: Improvisação. Dança. Poesia.

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is an African American trumpeter, composer and producer from New Orleans, Louisiana. He has written compositions and performed improvisations committed to social justice themes. His cultural work is a natural extension of his community service training directed by his grandfather Donald Harrison Sr. His composition 'Danziger' (2012) gives voice to the unarmed citizens injured and killed by police as they crossed the Danziger Bridge in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 'Danziger' extends from his stretch music theory which aTunde Adjuah describes as disassembling and reassembling musical ideas so that his compositions and improvisations can be understood holistically. While aTunde Adjuah's interpretation of the Danziger Bridge shootings is funneled through the ontological cornucopia of his trumpet and references his particular community, the message he sends out through his custom-made trumpet bell is universal because his critique supports everyday human rights.

An audio paper on H e (a) r; a soundscape connected to ecology, acoustics and embodiment, drawing on encounters and what happens in the connection. A fluctuation between hear-here-her*-her. Originating in a work for the ensemble Nordic Affect’s concert at Nordic Music Days 2016, the piece has now been developed into both a quadrophonic and stereo version of H e (a) r (2017/18). The work has been released on Nordic Affect’s album on the Sono Luminus label.This audio paper unpacks the work’s compositional process as well as curatorial strategies, which link to my PhD research project’s ecological-enactive trajectory, including its socio-political backdrop.The audio paper references H e (a) r in its album version. It also includes Nordic Affect’s performance of Mirjam Tally’s Warm life at the foot of the iceberg. Other sonic material lists as follows: documentation material from H e (a) r’s workshops – field recording by Magnus Bergsson of a crawling glacier - field recording by Halla ...

This article investigates the design and evolution of smart city platforms in the global south using the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Surabaya as case studies. While smart city projects are often framed in generic rhetoric of efficiency and modernization, the concept was originally formulated for cities in developed countries, and therefore requires adjustment for the local conditions in the developing world. While the former can rely on established institutions and well-developed infrastructures, the latter are characterized by rapid urbanization, weaker institutions, a lack of resources and public services. Unlike their highly regulated counterparts, cities in the global south are shaped by a dynamic informal economy and practices of improvisation. Using the lens of organizational improvisation, this article investigates how urban platforms emerge, and how they adapt to improvisational practices in the administration and the urban population. The article investigates different types of urban data platforms and their relationship with the social practices of their users. With Indonesian Smart City initiatives in Jakarta and Surabaya as a case study, this article aims to identify the local needs that motivated these cities to develop their respective projects. The second question asks how smart city implementations respond and adapt to the specific local conditions and the improvisational practices of their users. Distinguishing three types of urban data platforms, the article characterizes specific processes of bricolage and argues for stronger consideration of processes of improvisation in the design of urban data platforms. The contribution is threefold. The article provides a framework based on improvisation and bricolage that allows the social dynamics around smart city platforms and their impact on the system to be differentiated. It provides lessons on how traditional smart city models need to be adapted for cities in emerging economies. Finally, it offers a critique of the platform metaphors that are normally taken for granted.

Georg Bertram recently argued that a consistent and accomplished philosophy of art should consider not only the specific nature of art, but also its value as human practice. Moreover, he resorted to artistic improvisation in order to illustrate a characteristic aspect of the constitution of artworks: the self-referential relations implied in the artworks and shaping the artworks do not result from an alleged closure of the artwork’s form, but are negotiated locally, in relation to each individual artwork. Following this line of reasoning, and while offering arguments both in the context of contemporary analytical aesthetics as well as in reference to Michel De Certeau’s philosophy of everyday life and to philosophy of art of the Turin philosopher Luigi Pareyson, I will defend that “art” may be a particular way to look at and to develop human practices and that the link between human practices and art is provided by improvisation.
Improvisation is not only a particular artistic technique. Improvisation incorporates and genetically shows the specificity of autonomous art as well as the value of art, that is, the link between human practices and art as a specific human practice. Indeed, as I will explain, art both derives from and is a particular way to improvise (upon) human practices, i.e. to develop them in unprecedented and valuable ways. Accordingly, improvisation, as a specific artistic procedure, will be understood as that kind of artistic production in which the human practices art is based in come, as it were, exemplarily to the fore. Hence, improvisation can be understood as the paradigm of art as human practice: as I shall suggest, art begins with, and ends in, improvisation.

Improvisational exercises play a role in fostering a child’s creative abilities, enabling better socio-emotional development and communication skills in later development. This review paper investigates how creativity has been assessed and defined in previous developmental and educational psychological literature, focusing on the benefits of pretend play and improvisational teaching during music lessons in classrooms. By shedding light on this literature, better insights as to how child therapists use different types of therapeutic interventions, with pretend play and improvisation at
the forefront, are addressed. The implications of using improvisational exercises during training programs for trainee counsellors are also addressed.

Elke jazzliefhebber staat geregeld stil bij het wonder van de improvisatie. Het lijkt zo vanzelfsprekend en gemakkelijk - en toch is het een talent dat lang niet iedereen toevalt. Iwan Wopereis doet onderzoek voor een proefschrift waarin hij het geheim van de improvisatiekunst in de jazz wil doorgronden. Hier geeft hij alvast een tussenstand.

This paper presents the ludomusicological research associated with the development of a digital game: Otogarden (Oliva, 2021). If “making an actual game [...] is useful to materialize the design question [or] aesthetic issues [...] that are being addressed” (Khaled, Lessard, & Barr, 2018), Otogarden is intended as a playable support to research on musical participation with digital games. Specifically, this paper understands digital games as a contemporary venue for technologically augmented musicking (Borgo, 2007; 2013), potentially allowing access to forms of musical improvisation to a variety of users and players.
While digital games afford a remarkable variety of possible musicking (Oliva, 2017; 2019a; 2019b, 2019c), examples related to musical improvisation remain few and underexplored, with most games favoring score-based interactions, as made popular by titles such Guitar Hero (Harmonix, 2005) or Rock Band (Harmonix, 2007). In similar examples, music is presented as “a task to be achieved, a disciplinary activity in which the player should “play” again and again until the game (and thereby music) is mastered” (Kassabian & Jarman, 2016). Crucially, in these examples “music” is understood as pre-recorded compositions performed with the aid of simplified notation (Biamonte, 2011). Notable exceptions, such as the experimental music game Electroplankton (Nintendo, 2005), have been criticized by reviewers specifically for their lack of composition-oriented functionalities (Pilchmair, 2007), indicating an underlying set of expected qualities which constitute a barrier to the emergence of improvisatory musical practices in digital games.
Otogarden challenges this understanding of “music game”, by focusing on musical improvisation, "an activity of enormous complexity and sophistication, or the simplest and most direct expression” (Bailey, 1993, p. 83, 84). Players of Otogarden are able to repeat short phrases through the use of a “loop” mechanic, musicalizing potentially extra-musical (Kahn, 1999, p. 103) acoustic juxtapositions. While retaining the “intimate and reactive musical bond” (Grimshaw, Tan, & Lipscomb, 2013) typical of the music game genre, Otogarden does not feature canonic game characteristics, such as a winning condition, compatibly with recent understandings of game definitions (Juul, 2019, p. 224). The conclusions show that it is possible to deliberately stimulate the players’ perspective (Aarseth & Calleja, 2015) on the game towards an improvisatory musical direction, rendering manifest the extemporaneous musical possibilities connected with digital game engagement (Oliva, 2019c).

Improvisation, according to Stephen Asma, is a primordial form of human cognition. In this essay Asma explores the embodied cognition of improvisation, using examples from music. He recounts his experience playing music with master improvisers like Bo Diddley.

Abstract: This paper proposes a consideration about the actor ́s role on contemporary processes of scenic creation. In rehearsals (theatrical researches) based on collective and/or improvisation practices, the ac- tor has the decision power over his work. He chooses what will be part of his artistic itinerary. As a result, improvisation turns into methodology in this scenario making performance and dramaturgy engage in a relationship.

The purpose of this capstone project was to incorporate composition and improvisation activities into a pre-existing piano curriculum for adolescent piano beginners. Most piano method books are designed either for children or adults, but few piano method books are designed for adolescents. The goal in designing creative activities to be used in conjunction with a method book was to allow adolescent beginner piano students the opportunity to assert their musical identity while also reinforcing musical concepts they are learning in the method book. The Understanding by Design framework was used to guide  the creation of the units and individual lessons.

My father, Bob Bonifer, served in Company A, 80th Battalion, 317th Regiment, in World War II. He saw and experienced some of the most horrific scenes of the war, including an ambush by German tanks that left 160 of 220 men in his company dead or wounded, the surprise discovery of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and unspeakable starvation, death and devastation wherever they went.

We never knew any of this while he was alive (he passed away 5 years ago). He never spoke of it to anyone, including my mom. What I have come to realize is that the way he chose to live his life and raise his family after the war --and how he became known as 'Cowboy Bob,' was his lifer's statement about war, and his experiences in World War II in 1944-45.

In November, 2012, I was put in touch with Mr. Jerome Blesch of Holland, Indiana, age 91 at the time, who had served as the Radioman in my father’s company in the War. In speaking to Mr. Blesch, he revealed much of what what had happened to my dad during the War, thatI felt as if I was getting to know him all over again. I gained a new understanding of why he chose to become Cowboy Bob.

By then, I had begun to study the work of Dr. David Boje on quantum storytelling, and I realized that this experience fit Boje’s model of timespacemattering, because, in fact, time folded back on itself, moving backwards and forward simultaneously in the present, as I listened to things that both revealed the past and will no doubt shape the future. I felt that the story was still “in formation,” as Dr. Anete Strand of the University of Aalborg, would call it. She would say that in listening to Mr. Blesch describe my father's experiences in the War, I was experiencing “the between,” the space where time speeds up and stands still at once, where the new is revealed and many outcomes and new phenomena are possible.

While my father was still alive, I made a documentary about his life, in an effort to get the actor Bill Murray engaged in playing 'Cowboy Bob' in a movie for which I had written the screenplay.  I plan to use this quest to explain, at the Standing Conference, why it is important for managers to distinguish between objectives (for their narratives) and outcomes (of those narratives), a distinction that can be explored, in my opinion, only as a quantum phenomenon.

My paper, 'Quantum Cowboy,' is an allegory for managers tasked with keeping the narratives of communities and organizations alive, and continually in formation, in a highly chaotic networked world. It is an acknowledgement and celebration of 'the wild ride' taken by entrepreneurs and organizations. A manual for building an emergent culture in the wake of an organizational 'war.' And a guidebook for personal transformation in the wake of a shock to the system.