Symposium: Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation

Symposium: Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation

“Artists are the best explainers and models of what they do. Their views, reflections and contemplations are closer to the truth and more authentic than any other view concerning the music-objects they create.” (Wadada Leo Smith)

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Many of the theoretical contributions and essential ideas about improvisation in recent years and decades have been written by the practitioners themselves. Like Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, in his seminal book Improvisation. Its Nature and Practice in Music, published in 1980, made the crucial assumption that musicians themselves are the most persuasive guarantors of their art. His initial idea in this early testimony to artistic self-revelation was “to show the significance of improvisation through the experience of those who use it”. This was in line with his assumption that “there was an important part of improvisation not easily indicated or conveyed by its results, a part which perhaps only those involved in doing it seemed to be able to appreciate or comprehend”.

With this in mind, the exploratorium berlin is organizing the conference Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation to explore the specific practices, ideas, visions and theories of improvising musicians and other improvising artists. Their voices are essential to understanding the depth, complexity and diversity of the practice of improvisation. The aim, to again refer to Derek Bailey, is to “imagine a meaningful consideration of improvisation from anything other than a practical and a personal point of view.” On the one hand, improvising musicians and artists themselves are invited to highlight aspects of improvisation that are crucial to them from their own perspective. On the other hand, academics are invited to present their views on what practitioners say about improvisation and to analyze their discourse on the subject.

Contributions:
Ulrike Brand: Chance and Unpredictability in Improvisation
John Butcher: There’s a whole world out there.
Marina Cyrino: flutist-body-flute: a relationship guided by vulnerability to the other as a living presence
Corinna Eikmeier: The Meaning of Improvisation
Silvana Figueroa-Dreher: A Sociological Model of Improvisation Processes based on Musicians’ Explanations
Tim Fletcher: Residuals – Exploring the Derek Bailey Archive
Birgitta Flick: Pulsations: Exploring the Interaction of Improvisation and Notation with the Means of Artistic Research
Jean-Charles François: The Empty-Full or Full-Empty of Artistic Research on Musical Improvisation
Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu: Collaborative Improvisation as a Play: Practice-Based Research, from Istanbul in 2021 to the Present and Beyond
Olaf Hochherz: # Instruments/Tools
Carl Ludwig Hübsch: Do nothing?
Diego Kohn: Beyond the Normative: Non-European Improvising Musicians in European Cities
Matthias Koole: Improvisation and its Materiality
Una MacGlone: Diversifying Improvisation
Luigi Marino: Focus on Relationships: There Is More than what Meets the Eye.
Mattin & David Grundy: Freedom and Improvisation Today
mcddavid: The Art of Subjective Camera in Private Fairytales
Henry McPherson: Where in the World is the Improviser?: Transdisciplinarity, Ecology, and New Ways of Dreaming in Contemporary Free Improvisation Practice
Dag Magnus Narvesen: Flowing Decisions
Tam Thi Pham: Tradition and Improvisation
Federico Reuben & Franziska Schroeder: Improvised Rave
Simon Rose: Introducing: Relational Improvisation. Music, Dance and Contemporary Art
Wolfgang Schliemann: Invitation to Controversy: In what Way Is Improvisation Political and which Political Aspects of Improvisation Are Relevant today?
Richard Scott: The Songs of Others, Improvisation and Identity
Roman Stolyar: Bailey, Stockhausen, Braxton. Three Structural Approaches to Free Improvisation
Sabine Vogel: Trees, Traces and Roots
Altin Volaj: Cultural Crossroads: Free Improvisation’s Dialogue with Folk Music Heritage
Mark Wastell: DEREK BAILEY: An Afternoon at Sound 323
Georg Wissel: Ephemeral Kinetic Sculpture of Thoughts
Ebru Yazıcı: Sensing Sound: The Art of Improvisation

Participation: The symposium is fully booked; registration has been closed since January 27.

Documentation & Live Stream: Some of the contributions will be streamed live via our YouTube page. Other presentations will be documented and made available later, also on the same channel:
https://www.youtube.com/exploratoriumberlin

Conference Opening: To open the symposium, the trio John Butcher/ Mark Wastell/ Luigi Marino will be guest in exploratorium’s Sound & Lecture series on February, 2^nd, 8.00 pm. Coming from a practical background, all three have made notable contributions to thinking about improvisation, be it through articles, book publications, record production or doctoral theses. They will perform as a trio and discuss their specific ideas about improvisation.

Times:
Friday, February 2^nd, 2024, 8.00 pm: Opening Event “Sound & Lecture with John Butcher/ Luigi Marino / Mark Wastell”
Saturday, February 3^rd, 2024, 10.00 am – 9.30 pm (including Open Stage for Improvisation)
Sunday, February 4^th, 2024, 10.30 am – 3.30 pm

Conference Language: English

Call for Papers

Contact and Information: Mathias Maschat – exploratorium berlin, Zossener Straße 24, D–10961 Berlin-Kreuzberg – Tel. 0049 / 178 / 554 87 42, mm@exploratorium-berlin.de