(TIN) TransDisciplinary Improvisation Network
An international research group for improvisation
Middlesex University
School of Media and Performing Arts, London
present
What’s in a Name?
Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th Oct, 2015
You are invited to join us for a symposium investigating improvisation across disciplines.
Improvisation is a long–standing approach that is central to the processes of many performance forms with well-established techniques and practices. 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, practical workshops across disciplines, 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.
Guest Key Note Presentations:
David Toop, Professor of Audio Culture and Improvisation –
David Toop is a composer/musician, author and curator based in London who has worked in many fields of sound art and music, including improvisation and sound installations. He has recorded Yanomami shamanism in Amazonas, appeared on Top of the Pops, exhibited sound installations in Tokyo, Beijing and London’s National Gallery, and performed with artists ranging from John Zorn, Evan Parker, Bob Cobbing and Ivor Cutler to Akio Suzuki, Elaine Mitchener, Lore Lixenberg and Max Eastley. He has published five books, including Ocean of Sound, Haunted Weather, and Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener, Currently writing Into the Maelstrom: Improvisation, Music and the Dream of Freedom.
Sondra Fraleigh, Professor emeritus and Dance Artist/Writer –
For more than 30 years, Professor Sondra Fraleigh has been a leader in the study of movement and dance combining integrative bodywork, philosophy and meditation. Her work is informed by her certification in the Feldenkrais® Method and CranioSacral Therapy – as also her study of Myofascial Release, Effective Communication, Japanese Butoh, Yoga, and Zen meditation. Her innovative choreography based in somatics and inspired by butoh has been seen on tour in America, Germany, India, the UK, and Japan. She has published seven books and countless articles on dance and movement, philosophy, somatics, and developmental psychology.
Gary Peters, Professor of Critical and Cultural Theory –
Gary’s main research is in the area of continental philosophy and aesthetics from Kant to the present. This often overlaps with certain areas of pedagogical research as well as a range of art practices (from music and the performing arts to visual art and literature). He is also a musician composing and performing music in a wide range of genres, from jazz to country music and virtually everything and anything in between.
Gary is currently working on a book entitled ‘Improvisations on Improvisation’ to be published by Chicago University Press and working on a piece on Dance, Habit and Improvisation for another Oxford Handbook on Dance and Improvisation to be edited by Vida Midgelow.
Improvised performance event, in conjunction with the Inside Out festival () by: Jonathan Impett, Simon Limbrick, Ben Dwyer, Helen Kindred, Robert Vesty, Vida Midgelow, Suzanne Martin and guests
Registration fees:
£75 (waged/ institution) and £45 (unwaged/freelance artist/student)
Registration includes all events, refreshments, meals and an evening wine reception.
All presenters need to register
If you have any questions about registration / the venue etc please contact Mita Vaghji:
Inquiries can also be directed to the conference conveners:
Vida Midgelow:
Helen Kindred: