Research Library

A series of 3 videos created by Reza Yazdanpanah: Me myself and I: “Challenges in Improvising with Myself”, Improvisation in the Context of Persian Classical Music, and Rumi Lived Improvisationally.

Four33 is a podcast by IICSI graduate students Carey West and Stephen Donnelly, focusing on improvisation in daily life, particularly its value as a survival skill and tool for social change.

In Virtual Rectangles” a recording of a non-scripted live performance by IICSI Researchers Paul Watkins and Leila Qashu, and Critical Studies in Improvisation grad students Shaghayegh Yassemi and Erwan Noblet (2021).

Everyday improvisation in public space is an extremely broad topic, and the structure of this literature review speaks to that. Rather than providing a cohesive overview, I have instead opted to focus on a few select areas and examples of how this phenomenon is discussed in social theory and social science research (particularly sociology and human geography), as well as providing some examples that may be of interest to IICSI in terms of philosophy of improvisation or applications for improvisation.

A video showcasing the work of IICSI students and faculty at IICSI’s Summer Institute Research and Creation Studio in August, 2019.

“Sounds that Emerge from You” is an interview with musician and writer David Lee, conducted by IICSI Research Paul Watkins about what led Lee to improvised music.

A short interview with Allen Tush Naturinda about the role of improvisation in the transformative art workshops for youth in Uganda.

Voices Found: Free Jazz and Singing is a new title in Routledge’s Transnational Studies in Jazz series and the culmination of Dr. Chris Tonelli’s postdoctoral work with the IICSI. It pieces together a history of free jazz voice that spans from sound poetry and scat in the 1950s to the more recent wave of free jazz choirs.

A short video documenting the highlights of the final performance of the Spring 2019 Drum Clubs at George Luscombe Theatre, with Drum Club Director Richard Burrows.

 Edited by Ajay Heble Douglas R. Ewart’s Crepuscule: Stories of Impact features: essays and reflections by Michael Collins, Jeannette Hicks and Brian Lefrense, and Ed Sarath; an interview with Ewart by Ajay Heble; Ewart’s artist statement about the evolving energy that is Crepuscule; and throughout the pages are photographs from Crepuscule – Guelph – the culminating event of Ewart’s 2015-16 residency in Guelph’s Arboretum, and the subsequent participatory, multi-site, mixed-media exhibition Douglas R. Ewart’s Crepuscule at the Robert Langen Art Gallery at Wilfrid Laurier University.