Welcome to our new website!
Posted: Thursday, September 2, 2010Welcome to the newly redesigned ICASP website! This website features a newly created, cutting-edge research collection, an online archive of research papers, film, performance footage and other contributions to the lively, emerging field of Improvisation Studies. The collection incorporates innovative search and navigability features and dynamic content to create an online hub for anyone – scholar, musician, music fan, interested community member – who would like to know more about improvised music and its relation to broader social and political life.
New Issue! "Lex Non Scripta, Ars Non Scripta: Law, Justice, and Improvisation"
Posted: Monday, July 12, 2010Special Issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation / Etudes critiques en improvisation Improvisation is an important art form and an artistic and cultural phenomenon – a manner of speaking, a way of being, and a realm of experience. For theorists, improvisation as a practice and as an idea raises questions not just about how law comes to describe, judge, and regulate improvisation, but also about the converse – how improvisation might describe, judge, and regulate the law. What can law tell us about improvisation? What can improvisation tell us about law?
Guelph Jazz Festival wins prestigious Premier's Award
Posted: Monday, June 14, 2010ICASP extends its hearty congratulations to the organizers, volunteers, and artists of the Guelph Jazz Festival, which has been awarded the 2010 Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Project Director Ajay Heble founded the festival in 1994 and has served as its Artistic Director ever since. ICASP’s work is enriched by our affiliation with the festival, and we are delighted to see its efforts recognized in this way. Please see the Guelph Jazz Festival's site for further details.
Sound Lines - Improvisation, Text and Media Conference
Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010ICASP – in conjunction with Coastal Jazz and the University of British Columbia – presents Sound Lines, a conference on improvisation, text and media, which will take place June 24, 25 and 26, 2010, at UBC Robson Square and at the Tom Lee Music Hall, in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, alongside the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. The ongoing emergence of new media presents both challenges and opportunities for improvisers from around the world.
ICASP Spotlight: AIM Toronto
Posted: Friday, May 21, 2010ICASP is delighted to present the first installment in our exciting new series, ICASP Spotlight. This rotating showcase will profile some of the many artists, events, and organizations whose work and creativity contribute to the growing and dynamic fields of improvised musical and artistic practice and improvisation studies. In the Spring and Summer of 2009, ICASP graduate student Research Assistant Martin Eckart and ICASP Postdoctoral Fellow Rob Wallace produced a short documentary film about the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto. The film serves as an inaugural edition of the ICASP research website "Spotlight" series, showcasing artists and organizations involved in improvised music from around the world. "ICASP Spotlight: The Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto" features interviews and clips of live performances at Somewhere There, a venue in Toronto's Parkdale neighborhood that hosts many events involving AIMToronto members. The film can be viewed by following this link. Enjoy!
Call For Papers: Sound Lines - Improvisation, Text and Media Conference
Posted: Wednesday, March 3, 2010The ongoing emergence of new media presents both challenges and opportunities for improvisers from around the world. ICASP – in conjunction with Coastal Jazz and the University of British Columbia – invites proposals for presentations at Sound Lines, a conference on improvisation, text and media to take place June 24 and 25, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, alongside the TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Proposals are due by April 7th.
Lecture: Deep Improvisation and Dramaturgy across Difference
Posted: Wednesday, February 17, 2010On Wednesday February 24th from 5-7 pm, core ICASP researcher Professor Ric Knowles will be talking about his experience working as a dramaturge with improvising theatre performers in Toronto. Following his lecture, "Deep Improvisation & Dramaturgy across Difference: "Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way," participants will have the opportunity to ask questions in a warm, informal setting. Wine and refreshments will be available. View the conference poster here.
Social Aesthetics Conference: Improvisation & Social Research Group
Posted: Friday, February 12, 2010From March 12 - 14, 2010, ICASP will host a Social Aesthetics Conference at McGill University. This conference explores the question of the extent to which the social and dialogical practices which are foregrounded in improvisation are themselves bearers of aesthetic effects. At the same time, speakers will consider how social, cultural, economic and political forces condition the aesthetic practices and values of improvised performance. In this way the conference is concerned with re-theorising the nature of the aesthetic in improvisational and related creative practices.
4th Annual Creative Music Festival and Symposium at Guelph
Posted: Friday, February 5, 2010The University of Guelph Music Students' Association, Music Department and School of Fine Art and Music are holding the 4th Annual Creative Music Festival and Symposium Tuesday, February 9th - Thursday, February 11th, 2010. Join us for student performances, presentations, open classes, rehearsals, discussions, a performance by Dr. Ellen Waterman and Dr. James Harley's duo "Spin" for computer and flutes, and a keynote talk on "Queering Genre: Michael Jackson's Undoing of Pop Music Convention" by Dr. Susan Fast (McMaster). For further information and schedule, see the Music Students' Association website for information and details on proposal requirements.
2010 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium: Call for Papers
Posted: Wednesday, January 27, 2010The Guelph Jazz Festival, in conjunction with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the University of Guelph, and the SSHRC MCRI research project on "Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice," invites proposals for papers to be presented at our annual three-day international interdisciplinary conference. Proposals or papers should be submitted by May 31, 2010 to The 2010 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium c/o Dr. Ajay Heble, Artistic Director, The Guelph Jazz Festival email: jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca .
