(TIN) TransDisciplinary Improvisation Network presents What’s in a Name?

 23rd - 24th October 2015

Improvisation is a long–standing practice that is central to the processes of many performance forms with well-established practices and associated discourses. More recently the significance of improvisation has been recognised in contexts beyond the arts, including for example design, education, therapy and management, making this a dynamic and emergent field of research.

Strongly grounded in the creative arts and led by expert improvisers this event will be an opportunity to articulate and elaborate practices and contribute to the emerging critical discourses of all things improvisatory, refining understandings of creative approaches, terminologies and significances.

The event will include key note presentations, papers by leading researchers/artists, workshops, performances and open research spaces for shared creative dialogue, such that we use the modalities of the improvised (and the various practices we bring) as a way to consider the nature, benefits and problematics of improvisation.
 

Programme (Subject to change):

Day 1 – Friday 23^rd October 2015
 
13:00 – 14:00          Registration and Refreshments – Studio 3, Ravensfield
 
14:00 – 14:20          Welcome and introduction to the day – Vida Midgelow and Signy Henderson –
                                Theatre, Ravensfield
 
14:20 – 15:30          Keynote Lecture – Gary Peters – Theatre, Ravensfield
                                Naming the Void: the Language of the Improvised Event
 
15:30 – 15:45          Refreshment Break – Studio 3, Ravensfield

15.30 – 19.30          Installation - Theatre Arts Studio 2, Grove
                                Open throughout – please book a slot
                                Maria Kapsali – Switch On!: Using mobile phones for producing soundscapes through
                                movement

15:45 – 18:00          Parallel Sessions:
 
                                Theatre, Ravensfield
 
                                Panel 1 – Chair: Benjamin Dwyer
                                John Dack – Composition/Improvisation and Freedom/Constraint: the ‘open’                                                 form in music
 
                                Jane Carr – Disrupting the Habitus-What can be learned from the experiences of
                                dance improvisation to inform creative models for social interactions and the identities
                                to which they give rise? 
 
                                Panel 2 – Chair: Vida Midgelow

                                Lee Simpson – The International Institute of Improvisation
 
                                Paul Z Jackson – Applied Improvisation Network (AIN)                   
 
                                Workshop – Theatre Arts Studio 1, Grove – Chair: Helen Kindred

                                Matilda Leyser – Permission Improbable - workshop
 
                                Theatre Arts Studio Grove 2
 
18:00 – 19:30          Evening Reception / Buffet – Grove Atrium
                                               
19:30 – 21:00          Performance – ‘TIN Pieces’
                                As part of TCCE Inside Out festival – Theatre, Ravensfield


Day 2 – Saturday 24^th October 2015
 
09:00 – 09:30          Registration and Refreshments – Studio 3, Ravensfield
 
09:30 – 10:00          Welcome and introduction to the day – Vida Midgelow and Robert Vesty                                 – Theatre, Ravensfield
 
10:00 – 11:15          Keynote Lecture – David Toop – Theatre, Ravensfield
                                Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom

11:15 – 12:15          Keynote Lecture – Vida Midgelow – Theatre, Ravensfield
                                Everywhere and Nowhere: Dance Improvisation as (Un)Disciplinary Knowing
 
12:15 – 14:00          Lunch – G230, 2^nd Floor Grove Building, including ‘Open Space’ discussion
                                topics
           
14:00 – 15:30          Parallel Sessions
 
                                Theatre, Ravensfield
 
                                Panel 3 – Chair: Jonathan Impett
 
                                Lisa Parsons and Angela Walton – A philosophical, pedagogical and creative insight
                                into the notion of habit in improvisation
 
                                Steve Tromans – Improvisation contra composition: Redefining the terms of music  
                                made in performance
 
                                Anders Eskildsen – To play or not to play: Systems theoretical perspectives on the
                                problem of agency in collective free improvisation
 
                                Workshop - Theatre Arts Studio 1, Grove – Chair: Susanne Martin
                                Corinna Eikmeier – To improvise with an improvising Body
 
15:30 – 15:45          Coffee Break – Studio 3, Ravensfield
 
15:45 – 16:00          Parallel Session – Theatre, Ravensfield
 
                                Panel 4 – Chair: Robert Vesty
 
                                Veronika Semelkova – 'Moving Knowledge'
 
                                Detta Howe – ‘Sometimes’
                                   
16:45 – 17:30          Keynote Lecture – Sondra Fraleigh – Theatre, Ravensfield
                                Themes of “Improvising Natures”
 
17:30 – 18:30          Roundtable discussion with invited performers and feedback plenary
                                – Chair: Robert Vesty
 
18:30                       Conference Close


Registration open at our Online Store.

(NB. All presenters need to register)

If you wish to join the conversation on social media, we'd like to suggest the hashtag #TINconf15.

How to get here

The conference is held at our main campus in Hendon, north London, which is located 10 minutes from the Northern Line and Thameslink rail line, both of which take you to central London in under 30 minutes.

For directions and maps please click here.

Accommodation

• The Hendon Hall Hotel, Ashley Lane (within walking distance)
• The Pillar Hotel, Brent Street (within walking distance)
• Holiday Inn, Brent Cross (a short bus or Tube ride from Hendon)

Informal inquiries can be directed to the conference conveners:
Vida Midgelow:  [log in to unmask]
Helen Kindred:  [log in to unmask]