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12 events found.

Events

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  • October 2024

  • Fri 25
    Thinking Spaces graphic for Melissa Noventa "Movement Across Borders." Friday, October 25, 11 AM, ImprovLab. An image of Melissa leading a dance class is placed inside a blue polka dot. The green poster is highlighted with playful images of dots and squiggles.

    Thinking Spaces: Melissa Noventa, “Movement Across Borders: Improvisation, Diplomacy, and Transcultural Dialogues”

    October 25, 2024 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

    In a world with ever increasing migration and cultural exchange, dance holds a unique power to facilitate dialogue across cultural and political boundaries. Combining an informal talk with an interactive movement session, we’ll dive into how movement can act as a tool for diplomacy, offering new ways to engage with people from different backgrounds and experiences. Participants will be encouraged to engage with the nuances of improvisation as both a personal and collective practice, experiencing how movement can communicate across borders. Whether you are a seasoned dancer, or someone just curious about how the body communicates, come ready to move, experiment and reflect. No prior experience is required—just a willingness to move and explore new ideas!

    Free
  • November 2024

  • Sat 2
    Graphic for My Sextortion Diary. An Image of a hand is reaching u towards a light. Guelph Film Festival Branding backgrounds the image.

    My Sextortion Diary – Co-presented by the Guelph Film Festival and Ed Video

    November 2, 2024 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    In collaboration with Ed Video, the GFF will be screening Patricia Franquesa’s My Sextortion Diary at the ImprovLab. The film documents the experience of the filmmaker after her laptop is stolen and an anonymous hacker begins sending intimate images of her to her contacts, demanding payment to stop. Realizing that thousands of others have had a similar experience, and that the authorities will be of little help, Franquesa takes it on herself to figure out a way to end this situation. Franquesa tells her story with humour and candour, via texts, emails, and phone calls, refusing to be shamed, and “reclaiming the fragments of her body.”

    $15
  • Wed 13
    Graphic for "On Cuddling: Loved to Death in the Racial Embrace," Reading & Conversation with Phanuel Antwi. Nov. 13, 1–2: 15, MCKN 108 (ImprovLab). The poster features a cover of Antwi's new book, and an image of the author sitting in a chair, and speaking into a microphone.

    On Cuddling: Loved to Death in the Racial Embrace—Reading and Conversation with Dr. Phanuel Antwi (UBC)

    November 13, 2024 @ 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Ranging from the terrifying embrace of the slave ship's hold to the racist encoding of 'cuddly' toys, On Cuddling is a unique combination of essay and poetry that contends with the way racial violence is enacted through intimacy. Informed by Black feminist and queer poetics, Antwi focuses his lens on the suffering of Black people at the hands of state violence and racial capitalism. As radical movements grow to advance Black liberation, so too must our ways of understanding how racial capitalism embraces us all. Antwi turns to cuddling, an act we imagine as devoid of violence, and explores it as a tense transfer point of power.

    Free
  • Fri 15
    Thinking Spaces graphic fo Phil Mullen: "Ways into Improvisation." Friday, November 15, 12 PM, ImprovLab. Colourful text is set on a green backgrond. An image of Phil is spotlighted—surrounded by squiggly lines and polka dots.

    Thinking Spaces: Phil Mullen, “Ways Into Improvisation”

    November 15, 2024 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    *** Rescheduled to 12:00 PM (ET) ***

    In this participatory workshop, Dr Mullen will look at three approaches to group improvising—1) improvising with pulse and rhythm, 2) using stimuli such as text, visuals and thematic starting points, and 3) the Search and Reflect methodology as pioneered by Phil's mentor John Stevens, a key figure in European Free Group Improvisation. Please bring an instrument if possible.

    Free
  • Fri 22
    Thinking Spaces graphic for Priya Zalis, "Clinical Improvisation in Music Psychotherapy." Friday, Nove,ber 22, 12PM (ImprovLab).

    Thinking Spaces: Priya Zalis, “Clinical Improvisation in Music Psychotherapy”

    November 22, 2024 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    *** Rescheduled to 12:00 PM (ET) ***

    In this workshop, Priya will introduce her approach to music psychotherapy in the context of adult mental health, inviting attendees to participate in exploring the role that clinical improvisation can play in accessing and processing emotions, building social connection, and developing personal insights and growth. 

    Free
  • Wed 27
    IMPR 6030: Research Methods. Symposium. Wednesday, November 27, 1–3:45 PM, MacKinnon 203, U of Guelph, Light snacks and drinks will be provided.

    IMPR 6030: Research Methods Symposium

    November 27, 2024 @ 1:00 pm - 3:45 pm
    University of Guelph, MacKinnon Building 87 Trent Ln, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    The University of Guelph's newest IMPR cohort—Georgia Simms, Mark Leroy, and Simon Flint—have been hard at work this semester thinking and writing their way through their research topics, questions, and methodological frameworks. A significant part of research, especially in its early stages, is to come together to listen, share ideas, locate convergences, offer critique, and grow together as a supportive scholarly community.

    Each week this semester we have been engaged in such activities. Now, we are pleased to invite the wider research community to join us for a few hours as the three present their work. Presentations will be twenty minutes with an additional ten to fifteen minutes allotted for Q&A.

    Free
  • December 2024

  • Thu 5

    [Postponed until Spring 2025] Thinking Spaces: Eric Fillion, Sean Mills, and Désirée Rochat, “Statesman of the Piano: A Conversation on the Politics of Archiving, Curating, and Music Making”

    December 5, 2024 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    *Postponed until Spring 2025* Please join co-editors Eric Fillion, Sean Mills, and Désirée Rochat for a conversation around and about Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper (MQUP, 2023). The book “sparks new conversations about Hooper's legacy while shedding light on the cross-border travels and wartime experiences of Black musicians, the politics of archiving and curating, and the connections between race and music in the twentieth century.”

    Free
  • Wed 18
    Audiopollination Guelph. Spontaneous Improvised Music. Wednesday, December 18. Silence, 46mEssex St. 8 PM - 20$ / PWYC

    Audiopollination Guelph—Season 3, Episode 2

    December 18, 2024 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
    Silence 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Audiopollination Guelph returns for our second episode of Season 3, featuring new lineups of musicians and performers performing improvised music never before heard! It's most likely going to be a chilly evening, but I hope you can make it for the final night of improvisation and community in 2024! (more to come next year)

    $20
  • January 2025

  • Tue 21
    Thinking Spaces graphic for Justine Woods, "Re-stitching as Methodology: Garment-making as a Transformative Practice in Research Creation." Tuesday, January 21, ImprovLab, 12:00 PM–1:30 PM. Free. A black and white image of Justine is backgrounded with colourful design elements such as squiggles, swirls, and dotted lines.

    Thinking Spaces: Justine Woods, “Re-stitching as Methodology: Garment-making as a Transformative Practice in Research-creation”

    January 21, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    In this combined presentation and workshop, Justine Woods will discuss garment-making as research-creation with particular focus on the role garments play in resisting settler colonial displacement of Indigenous ontologies and bodies to place. Informed by her PhD dissertation research, Justine will expand upon the concept of ‘re-stitching’ as both a theoretical framework and embodied practice in exploring how the act of garment-making done by the Indigenous body can regenerate Indigenous ontology and re-stitch new worlds and futurities.

    Free
  • Sat 25
    An image of Pantayo's five members. They are staring at the camera, positioned above a reflective pool of water.

    Wet Sounds Series Presents: Pantayo

    January 25, 2025 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
    ImprovLab MacKinnon Room 108, 87 Trent Lane, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    On Saturday January 25th, 2025, Wet Sounds: feminist + queer music practices in the polycrisis presents a performance and conversation with PANTAYO. The second guest in the series hosted by Musagetes in Guelph, Pantayo are queer Filipinx kulintang gong punks based in Tkaronto, Canada. The ensemble combines traditional Kulintang music from the Philippines with contemporary influences and experimental sounds derived from their experiences as queer diasporic Filipinxs on Turtle Island.

    $15
  • February 2025

  • Thu 6
    Graphic Image for Book Launch—Soundin' Canaan by Paul db Watkins. The Vault Cafe, featuring Sonnet L'Abbe and Neil Surkan. Doors: 6:30 PM, Readings 7–8 PM.

    Book Launch—Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship, by Paul db Watkins

    February 6, 2025 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
    The Vault Cafe 499 Wallace Street, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

    We are pleased to announce the initial book launch for Soundin’ Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship, by Improvising Futures team member, Paul db Watkins on Thursday, February 6, at…

    $5
  • Sun 9
    Graphic for Sam Newsome—The Popeye Effect: Unlocking the Artist's Power to Transcend (talk + solo concert). Silence, 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Sunday, February9, 2025. $20/PWYC. The saxophonist, Sam Newsome, is sitting with his legs crossed and hands folded beneath his chin.

    Sam Newsome—The Popeye Effect: Unlocking the Artist’s Power to Transcend (talk + solo concert)

    February 9, 2025 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
    Silence 46 Essex Street, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    In this masterclass, we explore the importance of moving beyond our earthly selves to reach our true creative potential when improvising. As artists, our improvisational journeys can take us from the explainable to the unexplainable, from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Using the iconic cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man as a metaphor, we will discuss what true transcendence looks like in the creative process. We will also delve into how to employ extended techniques and instrument preparations as methods of transcendence, pushing the boundaries of traditional performance. Active participation from fellow musicians is highly encouraged.

    $20
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Research Partners

  • Carleton University Carleton University
  • The University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia
  • University of Guelph University of Guelph
  • 17, Institute of Critical Studies 17, Institute of Critical Studies
  • Musagetes Musagetes
  • Queen's University Belfast Queen's University Belfast
  • Memorial University Memorial University
  • University of Regina University of Regina
  • McGill University McGill University
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International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation IICSI House,
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N1H 1M8
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