Improvisation Symposium 23rd-24th October, Middlesex – Programme

(TIN) TransDisciplinary Improvisation Network presents What’s in a Name?

 23rd – 24th October 2015

 

Improvisation is a long–standing practice that is central to the processes of many performance forms with well-established practices and associated discourses. More recently the significance of improvisation has been recognised in contexts beyond the arts, including for example design, education, therapy and management, making this a dynamic and emergent field of research.

Strongly grounded in the creative arts and led by expert improvisers this event will be an opportunity to articulate and elaborate practices and contribute to the emerging critical discourses of all things improvisatory, refining understandings of creative approaches, terminologies and significances.

The event will include key note presentations, papers by leading researchers/artists, workshops, performances and open research spaces for shared creative dialogue, such that we use the modalities of the improvised (and the various practices we bring) as a way to consider the nature, benefits and problematics of improvisation.
Programme (Subject to change): 

Day 1 – Friday 23rd October 2015

13:00 – 14:00          Registration and Refreshments – Studio 3, Ravensfield

14:00 – 14:20          Welcome and introduction to the day –

Vida Midgelow and Signy Henderson –
                                    Theatre, Ravensfield

14:20 – 15:30          Keynote Lecture – Gary Peters – Theatre, Ravensfield
  Naming the Void: the Language of the Improvised Event

15:30 – 15:45          Refreshment Break – Studio 3, Ravensfield

15.30 – 19.30         Installation – Theatre Arts Studio 2, Grove 
                                     Open throughout – please book a slot 
  Maria Kapsali – Switch On!: Using mobile phones for producing  soundscapes through movement
15:45 – 18:00          Parallel Sessions: 

                                   Theatre, Ravensfield 

                                  Panel 1 – Chair: Benjamin Dwyer
  John Dack – Composition/Improvisation and Freedom/Constraint: the    ‘open’ form in music
  Jane Carr – Disrupting the Habitus-What can be learned from the experiences of dance improvisation to inform creative models for social interactions and the identities to which they give rise?  
                                Panel 2 – Chair: Vida Midgelow

  Lee Simpson – The International Institute of Improvisation

  Paul Z Jackson – Applied Improvisation Network (AIN)

                                Workshop – Theatre Arts Studio 1, Grove – Chair: Helen Kindred

  Matilda Leyser – Permission Improbable – workshop

                                

18:00 – 19:30          Evening Reception / Buffet – Grove Atrium

19:30 – 21:00          Performance – ‘TIN Pieces’ 
  As part of TCCE Inside Out festival – Theatre, Ravensfield

(nb. this performance can also be booked separately at Inside Out )

Day 2 – Saturday 24th October 2015

09:00 – 09:30          Registration and Refreshments – Studio 3, Ravensfield

09:30 – 10:00          Welcome and introduction to the day

Vida Midgelow and Robert Vesty                               

                                    Theatre, Ravensfield

10:00 – 11:15          Keynote Lecture – David Toop – Theatre, Ravensfield
                                      Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom

11:15 – 12:15          Keynote Lecture – Vida Midgelow – Theatre, Ravensfield
                                      Everywhere and Nowhere: Dance Improvisation as (Un)Disciplinary

                                      Knowing

12:15 – 14:00          Lunch – G230, 2nd Floor Grove Building, including ‘Open Space’ discussion topics

14:00 – 15:30          Parallel Sessions 

                                   Theatre, Ravensfield 
                                  Panel 3 – Chair: Jonathan Impett

      Lisa Parsons and Angela Walton – A philosophical, pedagogical and creative insight into the notion of habit in improvisation

      Steve Tromans – Improvisation contra composition: Redefining the terms of music  made in performance

  Anders Eskildsen – To play or not to play: Systems theoretical perspectives on the  problem of agency in collective free improvisation

                                   Workshop – Theatre Arts Studio 1, Grove – Chair: Susanne Martin
   Corinna Eikmeier – To improvise with an improvising Body

15:30 – 15:45          Coffee Break – Studio 3, Ravensfield

15:45 – 16:00          Parallel Session – Theatre, Ravensfield 

                                    Panel 4 – Chair: Robert Vesty

  Veronika Semelkova – ‘Moving Knowledge’

  Detta Howe – ‘Sometimes’

16:45 – 17:30          Keynote Lecture – Sondra Fraleigh – Theatre, Ravensfield
  Themes of “Improvising Natures”

17:30 – 18:30          Roundtable discussion with invited performers and feedback plenary  – Chair: Robert Vesty

18:30                       Conference Close 

Registration open at our 

 £75 (waged/ institution) and £45 (unwaged/freelance artist/student)

Middlesex Staff free attendance to conference, evening reception £15. Please register through the Online Store.

(NB. All presenters need to register)

If you wish to join the conversation on social media, we’d like to suggest the hashtag .

How to get here

The conference is held at our main campus in Hendon, north London, which is located 10 minutes from the Northern Line and Thameslink rail line, both of which take you to central London in under 30 minutes.

For directions and maps please .

Accommodation

  • , Ashley Lane (within walking distance)
  • , Brent Street (within walking distance)
  • , Brent Cross (a short bus or Tube ride from Hendon)

Informal inquiries can be directed to the conference conveners:
Vida Midgelow:  
Helen Kindred:  

Event times: 

Friday 23rd October: 13.00pm – 20.30pm
Saturday 24th October: 09.00am – 17.00pm
Registration & Refreshments: Studio 3, Ravensfield Theatre
Venue: Middlesex University, The Burroughs, London, NW4 4BT – 
Join the conversation on social media, , hashtag .