News
Welcoming our new Project Manager: Dr. Sheetal Lodhia
We are thrilled to introduce IICSI’s new Project Manager, Dr. Sheetal Lodhia! Sheetal Lodhia has worked in the public and private sectors at the intersections of strategic management, production (radio, print, video), research (qualitative, ethnographic, table), and community engagement. She is a voracious consumer of pop culture, and, as an Allophone, comfortable working in multilingual…
Apply Now: MA / PhD in Critical Studies in Improvisation
Come research—and practice—arts-based community-making with us in the Fall of 2022!
McGill Colloquium This Weekend: Livestream “Echoes of a Distance” Nov. 19-20
The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) at McGill University invites you to an event (papers and performances, live and livestreamed) on the ways the relations between sound, music and politics have been affected by the confinements. You can tune in to the livestream via the IICSI Facebook page through this link, or,…
IF Encore Installation at U of G Arboretum
This fall, we invite you to the University of Guelph Arboretum to visit IF Encore, a series of signpost installations throughout the Arboretum. These signposts each feature a distinct QR code, which you can scan with your phone to relive incredible improvisational performances filmed in those locations and originally shown at previous iterations of the…
Ajay Heble Announced as U Michigan Scholar-In-Residence
Congratulations to our director, Dr. Ajay Heble, who was selected as the Scholar-in-Residence at The University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies for fall 2021! Drawing upon his experience as as author, scholar, and musician who has served as both a faculty member at University of Guelph and as the Founder and former Artistic…
Celebratory Concert for “IF Encore” Installation Launch
This Saturday, October 16th, IICSI is thrilled to be hosting live music in the Arboretum to celebrate the launch of a new installation project! Join us at 1 pm on the Memorial Forest boardwalk (see directions below) for a pop-up, physically distanced, improvised musical performance by Richard Burrows and Daniel Morphy of TorQ Percussion Quartet,…
IICSI profiled in the Globe & Mail
Our Institute is making headlines! Thanks to Guy Dixon at The Globe and Mail for a fantastic article published this past week on the role of improvisation in society, highlighting IICSI’s work. The piece, which discusses how “improvisational music offers a blueprint in creative collaboration far beyond the artistic realm,” is an excellent introduction to the…
IICSI at the Guelph Jazz Festival
This year’s edition of the internationally celebrated Guelph Jazz Festival is fast approaching—with events taking place all around the city from September 14th-19th—and IICSI is pleased to be co-presenting two events included in the Jazz Fest’s programming! SOUND MILL IICSI and the Guelph Jazz Festival present SOUND MILL, a site-specific multi-channel sound (+ light) installation by…
Thanks for joining us at IF 2021!
From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all those who were able to join us for IF 2021, the second iteration of IICSI’s all-day, all-night, online celebration of improvised arts. This international Festival, which took place on the weekend of August 13-15, celebrated the values at the core of our Institute: the…
IF 2021
IICSI is thrilled to announce our second annual all-day, all-night, online celebration of improvised arts: IF 2021! Starting on August 14th at midnight UTC+1 (August 13th at 7pm, EDT), join us to experience a full 24-hours featuring innovative artists of all disciplines—music, dance, theatre, poetry, visual arts, and more—showcasing new, improvised works filmed in their…
