Research Library

As part of our commitment to making our work and outputs accessible, and to generate further dialogue on the issues we explore, IICSI has created an online Research Library. Here you will find a range of pieces including films, articles, think pieces, and interviews. Please use the search function or browse, and check back again as this library will be updated regularly.

Research outcomes related to the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice project (2007-2013) are forthcoming.

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Sorry about the Sound Quality

Sorry about the Sound Quality: Improvisation, Living in the Moment and the Beauty of Mistakes is a collection of interviews by Caroline Gillis with friends and colleagues in theatre about improvisation, how they used it in their work and how it may have impacted their lives. Actors have to be improvisers on a daily basis, juggling many different types of work (creative and sometimes not) to keep body and creative soul alive. You will see how improvisation has positively affected the lives of these artists.

Improvise Here

The Improvisation Toolkit and Resources

The Improvisation Toolkit includes simple and direct instructions for games, activities and strategies to add improvisation to your classroom and a Toolkit Resource List of external resources relevant to the Improvisation Toolkit including sources on games, school and university classes, special needs, at-risk youth are available as a single download.

Vijay Iyer interviews Richard Weston

Randy Weston interviewed by Vijay Iyer – Guelph Jazz Festival 2014

Pianist Randy Weston is interviewed onstage by Vijay Iyer during the 2014 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium.

Evan Parker interview with Kevin McNeilly

Evan Parker interviewed by Kevin McNeilly – Guelph Jazz Festival 2015

During the 2015 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium Evan Parker was interviewed by Kevin McNeilly as a keynote presentation.

Douglas Ewart-interview-Ajay-Heble

Douglas R. Ewart – Guelph Jazz Festival 2015

During the 2015 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, Improvisor-In-Residence 2015/16, Douglas R. Ewart was interviewed by Ajay Heble. Ewart discussed his long term project Crepuscule, ideas for his residency in Guelph, Ontario and his journey to and the practice of improvisation.

The Share Publication

In 2012, Improvisers-in-Residence Susanna Hood and Scott Thomson engaged in a broad range of community-based, collaborative creative initiatives in Guelph. This publication gathers a series of reflections on the residency,…

Think Piece: Improvisation and the Syrian Refugee Crisis

ABSTRACT The current Syrian refugee crisis—the civil war and the displaced peoples that resulted from it, but also the crisis with respect to how Western countries have responded to it—affirms…

World Percussion Summit & IICSI Launch

In September 2013 the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) launched with a world percussion summit featuring Hamid Drake, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Jesse Stewart and Dong-Won Kim. IICSI…

IMP Labs participant Ryan Anaskan

Critical Studies in Improvisation – Études critiques en improvisation

The Critical Studies in Improvisation/ Études critiques en improvisation is an open-access, peer-reviewed, electronic, academic journal on improvisation, community, and social practice housed at the University of Guelph. The editorial and advisory boards are made up of leading international scholars spanning diverse disciplines.

Improvisation and Leapfrogging

The History of Improvisation in Toronto and the Episteme of the Twentieth Century “I am inclined toward leaping forward” – Mao Zedong, 2 February 1959 “One small step for a…

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