CSI-ÉCI Issue 17.1: “Sound, Meaning, Education 23”

We’re thrilled to announce that Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation—IICSI’s open-source academic journal—has just published a new special issue: “Sound, Meaning, Education 23” (17.1)!

You can read the issue here!

This special issue emerges from a collaboration between the international organization Sound, Meaning, Education (SME) and the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation’s Improvisation Festival (IF) at the University of Guelph, which took place between October 20–22, 2023.

In their editorial for this issue, “Revisiting the Interplays of Sound, Meaning, Education 23,” jashen edwards and Rebecca Rinsema explain: “Drawing upon a range of research methodologies, conceptual framings, and artistic practices, SME 23 nurtured a space for scholarship promoting exploration, curiosity, and dialogue. From improvisational games inviting musical creativity to sonic art integrating experimental electronics; from hearing newly designed musical instruments to listening to local ambience on a semi-guided soundwalk—SME 23 provided multisensory participation. The energy over those three days was infectious.”

This special issue begins with a keynote address (originally presented at SME 23):

• Jonathan De Souza: “Improvising with Technology: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Performance”

This issue includes the following articles:

• Laura Jane Menard and Doug S. Friesen: “Allowing the A-loud: Sonic Permission, Power, and Agency in the Classroom”

• Jake Sokolov-Gonzalez, “Stimming and Steroescopy: Situating Improvisation at the Margins of Sensibility”

• Craig Dongoski: “Mental Radio”

• Walter Gershon, “Everything Improvised”

This issue also features the following Notes and Opinions piece:

• Elric Paauw: “Keying Into Ambient Music: Attending to Soundscapes as Phenomenological Practice”

The issue also includes three book reviews:

• Cisco Bradley reviews Milford Graves: a Mind-Body Deal, edited by Mark Christmann, Celeste DiNucci, and Anthony Elms

• Jeff Schwartz reviews European Echoes: Jazz Experimentalism in Germany, 1950-1975 by Harald Kisiedu

• Benjamin Barson reviews The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront by Cisco Bradley

The cover of this issue features artwork by Esther Gámez. At the SME conference, Gámez and Dr. Wilfrido Terrazas led attendees in an exploration of collaborative sound improvisation in which tarot cards illustrated by Gámez served as inspiration. Gámez has generously allowed us to include her artwork from Tarot cards as part of this special issue; you can view the full set as a stand-alone PDF alongside the editorial.

Thank you to all the contributors, editors, proofreaders/copyeditors, peer reviewers, and community members who made this publication possible!