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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251007T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251007T133000
DTSTAMP:20251002T204006Z
CREATED:20250310T145319Z
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UID:15465-1759838400-1759843800@improvisationinstitute.ca
SUMMARY:Thinking Spaces: Lucy Rupert\, Lisa Hirmer\, and Christina Kingsbury "Interdisciplinary Improvisation & Ultrasonic Moth Songs"
DESCRIPTION:Please join us on Tuesday\, October 7 at 12:00 PM (ET) for Thinking Spaces: “Interdisciplinary Improvisation & Ultrasonic Moth Songs” with Lucy Rupert\, Lisa Hirmer\, and Christina Kingsbury.\n \n\nThis presentation will take place in person at ImprovLab\, MCKN 108 at the University of Guelph. As always\, our Thinking Spaces events are free and open to all! \nMore About this Workshop:\nIn August 2024\, dancer Lucy Rupert and musician Ben Finley\, along with artists Christina Kingsbury and Lisa Hirmer\, collaborated on the interdisciplinary performance Ultra-sonic Moth Songs. Audiences present on that magical summer evening experienced improvised music and movement among the moths at the Moth Garden! Join us as Lucy\, Christina\, and Lisa reflect on the environmentally inspired multi-disciplinary performance\, and the role of improvisation in creating their evocative work.  \nMore About the Presenters:\nLucy Rupert is a dancer\, choreographer\, art-science researcher\, and artistic director of Blue Ceiling dance (founded 2004)\, through which she has created and produced over three dozen works of contemporary dance and multidisciplinary performance. For the last decade\, Lucy has researched and explored the intimate connection between scientific and artistic processes through interviews\, artistic creations\, and collaborations with scientists. \n“heartless”\, Lucy’s most recent solo production delving into the moral philosophy of robots\, was honoured with three Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations\, including Outstanding performance by an individual and Outstanding original choreogprahy. \nLucy’s work has been presented by dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada festival\, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics\, Dusk Dances\, Guelph Dance Festival\, the Stuttgart International Solo Tanz-Theatre Festival and in unconventional spaces throughout Ontario. \nLucy has performed with noted companies such as Fujiwara Dance Inventions (2010-present)\, Theatre Rusticle (2001-2017)\, Nova Dance\, Theatre Passe Muraille\, Puppetmongers Theatre\, Circus Orange\, Chartier Danse\, Anandam Dance\, Sashar Zarif Dance\, Free Flow Dance Theatre Company (1995-1999)\, and many other independent choreographers and creators. \nWith a Joint Honours BA in Dance and Music from the University of Waterloo\, an MA in History from the University of Toronto\, Lucy is a lifelong learner\, currently studying philosophy through Oxford University’s Continuing Education Department. \nLucy is a mom\, a birdwatcher\, a citizen scientist\, a singer-songwriter and a writer on creative process and dance history. She lives in Toronto with her husband\, her son\, and a feral cat\, in a neighbourhood full of coyotes and old trees. \nLisa Hirmer is an interdisciplinary artist who works in visual media\, especially photography; social practice; community collaboration\, and sometimes writing. Her work is focussed on collective relationships both in human communities and in human relationships with the more-than-human world. A lot of her recent work wrestles with what it means to be living inside the climate emergency and on the edge of planetary collapse. Her work finds home both in traditional gallery contexts and an expanded field of other public and semi-public spaces and is always created with a keen awareness that multiple realities exist alongside one another. \nShe has shown her work across Canada and internationally including at Art Gallery of Ontario\, Art Gallery of Guelph\, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery\, Cambridge Art Galleries\, Art Gallery of Mississauga\, Tom Thomson Gallery\, Art Windsor-Essex\, Doris McCarthy Gallery\, Peninsula Arts\, CAFKA\, Queens Museum\, and Flux Factory\, among others. She has done artist residencies with Arts House Melbourne\, the Santa Fe Art Institute\, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation\, the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World\, KIAC and Camargo Foundation\, and was the 2022 Waterfront Toronto Artist in Residence. She has received numerous grants including from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts and has a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo. \nChristina Kingsbury’s (she/her) interdisciplinary art practice is inspired by histories of care and explores themes of place\, ecology and inter-species relationships. Her work takes the form of performance\, installation and social practice. Christina collaborates regularly with poets\, ecologists\, artists\, choreographers and the public-including ecological public – to create relational works that offer a quiet and radical challenge to the commodification of life. Her work is rooted (often literally) in the Grand River watershed and treaty lands of the Mississauga’s of the Credit and part of her practice works through relationships with land as a settler person. Her solo and collaborative work has been shown as public interventions and in curated exhibitions both locally and internationally.
URL:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/event/thinking-spaces-interdisciplinary-improvisation-ultrasonic-moth-songs/
LOCATION:ImprovLab\, MacKinnon Room 108\, 87 Trent Lane\, University of Guelph\, Guelph\, Ontario\, N1G 1Y4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Thinking Spaces
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Thinking-Spaces-Moth-Songs-Poster_Oct-2025.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251015T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251015T210000
DTSTAMP:20250922T195634Z
CREATED:20250922T191902Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250922T195634Z
UID:16205-1760554800-1760562000@improvisationinstitute.ca
SUMMARY:cinéma FRANCOPHONE cinema: Hiroshima mon amour (dir. Alain Resnais\, 1959)
DESCRIPTION:IICSI Director Dr. Eric Fillion is curating a special Francophone Cinema film series at The Bookshelf Cinema (41 Quebec Street\, Guelph). These French-language films (with English subtitles) push the boundaries of cinematic convention to explore urgent\, timely topics. Intended for Francophiles and cinephiles alike\, the fall 2025 program brings together a brilliant constellation of politically minded artists that straddled the line between cinema and literature amid turbulent times (1940s—1960s)\, voicing their opposition to war\, imperialism\, and the spectre of fascism while also enacting and articulating their vision for a better\, more just and equitable society.  \nThe second film in the series will be Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima mon amour (1959). See the film synopsis and specifications below. We hope to see you there for the October edition of this exciting monthly film series! \nHiroshima mon amour\nDirector: Alain Resnais\nYear: 1959\nCountry: France\nRunning Time: 90 minutes \nA cornerstone of the French New Wave\, the first feature from Alain Resnais is one of the most influential films of all time. A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) engage in a brief\, intense affair in postwar Hiroshima\, their consuming mutual fascination impelling them to exorcise their own scarred memories oflove and suffering. With an innovative flashback structure and an Academy Award–nominated screenplay by novelist Marguerite Duras\, Hiroshima mon amour is a moody masterwork that delicately weaves past and present\, personal pain and public anguish.
URL:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/event/cinema-francophone-cinema-hiroshima-mon-amour-dir-alain-resnais-1959/
LOCATION:The Bookshelf Cinema\, 41 Quebec Street\, Guelph\, Ontario\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Community Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Cinema-Francophone-Eric-Fillion-Fall-2025-V2.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251018T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251018T210000
DTSTAMP:20251014T201308Z
CREATED:20251009T150415Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251014T201308Z
UID:16252-1760814000-1760821200@improvisationinstitute.ca
SUMMARY:IICSI 2025 Improviser-in-Residence Marilyn Crispell in Concert at the ImprovLab
DESCRIPTION:IICSI is thrilled to announce that a free night of performances by renowned pianist Marilyn Crispell will take place in ImprovLab on Saturday\, October 18th. \nThese performances will be the culmination of a week of workshops and collaborative sessions Crispell will lead as IICSI’s 2025 Improviser-in-Residence. \nIn her first performance of the evening\, at 7 PM\, Crispell will collaborate with Guelph’s new and as-yet-unnamed Creative Music Orchestra. Having gathered a few times in recent months to explore the compositions and ideas of some of its many members\, the orchestra is beyond excited to work with Marilyn Crispell. For this performance\, the orchestra members will be: \nConnor Bennett – saxophones\nMatt Brubeck – cello\nMatt Endahl – piano\, fender rhodes\nJonathan Kay – saxophones\, esraj\nKayla Milmine – soprano saxophone\nPatrick O’Reilly – guitar\nHeather Saumer – trombone\nJoe Sorbara – drums\, percussion\nTyler Wagler – bass\nClaire Whitehead – violin\nEm Wright – objects\nMark Zurawinski – drums\, percussion \nThe second set\, at 8 PM\, will see Crispell perform in a trio with Joe Sorbara and Jonathan Kay. Sorbara and Kay’s duo project\, The Rest\, invokes the emergence of compelling sound worlds that draw upon memory in different ways: intriguing and transformative sounds\, noises\, spaces\, places\, images\, and affects are made present in the moment alongside intentionally cultivated memories including the musics of Don Cherry\, Ornette Coleman\, Marilyn Crispell\, and Jimmy Lyons\, in addition to original pieces by Kay and Sorbara themselves. All of this means that Kay and Sorbara are as likely to be exploring a sound constellation tripped over in a moment of free improvisation as they are a pre-composed melody\, groove\, or playful rhythmic puzzle. \nAnyone wishing to see what Crispell is working on during her time in residency is free to listen in on her trio workshop session with Sorbara and Kay from 1-3 PM on Tuesday\, October 14th. Crispell will also give an open improvisation workshop for community members and students from 1-3 PM on Thursday\, October 16th. Please reach out to IICSI Project Manager Julia Busatto if you would like to participate! \nMarilyn Crispell has been a composer and performer of contemporary improvised music since 1978. For ten years\, she was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble. She has performed and recorded extensively as a soloist and with players on the American and international jazz scenes. She has worked with dancers\, poets\, filmmakers\, and visual artists. She also teaches workshops in improvisation. She has been the recipient of three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship grants\, a Guggenheim Fellowship\, a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission\, and a 2025 NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship award. \nInternationally celebrated for her skill as an improvising pianist\, Marilyn Crispell is not to be missed. In the words of The New York Times’ Jon Pareles\, “Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano. She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz.”
URL:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/event/iicsi-improviser-in-residence-marilyn-crispell-in-concert-at-the-improvlab/
LOCATION:ImprovLab\, MacKinnon Room 108\, 87 Trent Lane\, University of Guelph\, Guelph\, Ontario\, N1G 1Y4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:IICSI events,Live @ImprovLab
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Improviser-in-Residence-2025_dark-blue-Background-Draft_Updated-1.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251021T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251021T170000
DTSTAMP:20251016T171015Z
CREATED:20251016T160352Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251016T171015Z
UID:16276-1761058800-1761066000@improvisationinstitute.ca
SUMMARY:IMPR Student Colloquium: Mike Hansen—"The First Experience: A Noise…"
DESCRIPTION:Mike Hansen will present his IMPR PhD Student Colloquium at 3 PM in ImprovLab on October 21. This hybrid presentation is titled “The First Experience: A Noise…” and will be accessible via Zoom: \n\nTopic: Mike Hansen Colloquium\nhttps://zoom.us/j/98711610640?pwd=25OxLubk1xSbpeVE7bCylfFV79HD0a.1 \nMeeting ID: 987 1161 0640\nPasscode: 130913 \n\nThis paper will examine a common first point of exposure to sound poetry for children\, by which an epistemological understanding of sound and noise is created in a performative setting. This occurs when a parent or guardian reads a children’s picture board book to a toddler\, thereby developing an ontology of learning.  \nThis paper will argue that the improvised performative poetic presentation—or sound poetry—of these children’s texts functions as an oral tool for learning\, comprehension\, and agency building. \nThis paper will examine how noises are presented in various picture books\, such as Dr. Seuss’ Mr. Brown Can Moo! The paper’s primary focus is the noise-to-sound paradigm developed through the improvisational performance of children’s texts like The Noisy Book\, by famed children’s author and poet Margaret Wise-Brown (best known for Goodnight Moon). These seminal texts are about the relationship of noise\, improvisation and poetry in the ears of toddlers. The inclusion of onomatopoeic words creates the flow of written noises\, and their presented function—via improvisational\, performative actions—emphasizes comprehension. This paper will dissect noise and the context in which it is perceived in toddler’s poetic literature\, where its purpose is to be orally performed. These board books are sonic-poetic presentations that form the recipient’s thinking while also developing agency in the presenter. These texts move past read poems or stories to onomatopoeic presentations\, creating an ontology of performative acts which stress actions of understanding and definition\, building the foundation of an epistemology towards future thinking. This is the first experience of language and improvisation for toddlers\, and possibly for the presenter or performer as well.  \nMike Hansen is a sound artist\, visual artist and experimental musician who uses noise through acts of improvisation as a tool to create social constructs. He is a PhD student in Critical Studies in Improvisation (IMPR) at the University of Guelph.  His research seeks to develop an understanding of when noise becomes a sound\, both through how it is defined and its evolution. He completed his Masters of Fine Arts at York University in 2008 and has been exhibiting paintings\, sculptures and installations since 1984. For 22 years\, he hosted a radio program of experimental and improvised music in Toronto. He has published a number of papers on noise and experimental turntablism. 
URL:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/event/impr-student-colloquium-mike-hansen-the-first-experience-a-noise/
LOCATION:ImprovLab\, MacKinnon Room 108\, 87 Trent Lane\, University of Guelph\, Guelph\, Ontario\, N1G 1Y4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:IICSI events,Student Colloquium
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/CIMG1881.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20251027T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20251027T110000
DTSTAMP:20251020T192601Z
CREATED:20251008T173341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251020T192601Z
UID:16237-1761559200-1761562800@improvisationinstitute.ca
SUMMARY:Sharon D. Engbrecht: "World-Building: Improvisation and Narrativity" Public Lecture
DESCRIPTION:We are pleased to announce that IICSI Postdoctoral Fellow Sharon D. Engbrecht will be delivering a public lecture in ImprovLab at 10 AM on October 27. This event is free and open to all! \nDr. Engbrecht’s lecture will explore the dynamic between improvisation and narrativity. Both share elements of world-building or of negotiating how the world around us is perceived\, but world-building is bound by unspoken rules\, agreements\, and expectations—does the same go for improvisation? What are the limits of co-creation? How might aspects of narrative theory challenge the way we think about improvisation? \nHaving recently finished their PhD at the University of British Columbia in English Literature\, Sharon D. Engbrecht is the 2025-2026 Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI). Their research into narratives of gender and sexuality investigates broader questions of embodiment\, dwelling\, and queer love. Their forthcoming articles include the theorization of “difficulty” in the post-secondary educational context and the “gloriously ugly” in Marian Engel’s No Clouds of Glory (Sarah Bastard’s Notebook).
URL:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/event/sharon-engbrecht-world-building-improvisation-and-narrativity-public-lecture/
LOCATION:ImprovLab\, MacKinnon Room 108\, 87 Trent Lane\, University of Guelph\, Guelph\, Ontario\, N1G 1Y4\, Canada
CATEGORIES:IICSI events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://improvisationinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sharon-D.-Engbrecht-World-Building-Improvisation-and-Narrativity-Public-Lecture-IICSI.png
ORGANIZER;CN="IICSI Guelph":MAILTO:ahadmin [at] uoguelph.ca
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