Negotiated Moments: Improvisation, Sound, and Subjectivity (Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice)

The contributors to Negotiated Moments explore how subjectivity is formed and expressed through musical improvisation, tracing the ways the transmission and reception of sound occur within and between bodies in real and virtual time and across memory, history, and space. They place the gendered, sexed, raced, classed, disabled, and technologized body at the center of critical improvisation studies and move beyond the field's tendency toward celebrating improvisation's utopian and democratic ideals by highlighting the improvisation of marginalized subjects. Rejecting a singular theory of improvisational agency, the contributors show how improvisation helps people gain hard-won and highly contingent agency. Essays include analyses of the role of the body and technology in performance, improvisation's ability to disrupt power relations, Pauline Oliveros's ideas about listening, flautist Nicole Mitchell's compositions based on Octavia Butler's science fiction, and an interview with Judith Butler about the relationship between her work and improvisation. The contributors' close attention to improvisation provides a touchstone for examining subjectivities and offers ways to hear the full spectrum of ideas that sound out from and resonate within and across bodies. Contributors. George Blake, David Borgo, Judith Butler, Rebecca Caines, Louise Campbell, Illa Carrillo Rodríguez, Berenice Corti, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Nina Eidsheim, Tomie Hahn, Jaclyn Heyen, Christine Sun Kim, Catherine Lee, Andra McCartney, Tracy McMullen, Kevin McNeilly, Leaf Miller, Jovana Milovic, François Mouillot, Pauline Oliveros, Jason Robinson, Neil Rolnick, Simon Rose, Gillian Siddall, Julie Dawn Smith, Jesse Stewart, Clara Tomaz, Sherrie Tucker, Lindsay Vogt, Zachary Wallmark, Ellen Waterman, David Whalen, Pete Williams, Deborah Wong, Mandy-Suzanne Wong Introduction. Improvising at the nexus of discursive and material bodies -- Gillian Siddall and Ellen Waterman Improvisation within a scene of constraint : an interview with Judith Butler -- Tracy McMullen Listening, place, and space. "How am I to listen to you"? : soundwalking, intimacy, and improvised listening -- Andra McCartney Community sound [e]scapes : improvising bodies and site/space/ place in new media audio art -- Rebecca Caines Technology and embodiment. Improvising composition : how to listen in the time between -- Pauline Oliveros The networked body : physicality, embodiment, and latency in multisite performance -- Jason Robinson Openness from closure : the puzzle of interagency in improvised music and a neocybernetic solution -- David Borgo Mediating the improvising body : Art Tatum's postmortem performance in a posthuman world -- Andrew Raffo Dewar Banding encounters : embodied practices in improvisation -- introduction and conclusion by Tomie Hahn ; essays by Louise Campbell, Lindsay Vogt, Simon Rose, George Blake, Catherine Lee, Sherrie Tucker, François Mouillot, Jovana Milović, and Pete Williams Learning to go with the flow : David Rokeby's Very nervous system and the improvising body -- Jesse Stewart Stretched boundaries : improvising across abilities -- introduction and conclusion by Sherrie Tucker ; essays by Pauline Oliveros, Neil Rolnick, Christine Sun Kim, Clara Tomaz, David Whalen, Leaf Miller, and Jaclyn Heyen Gender, trauma, and memory. The erotics of improvisation in Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on your knees -- Gillian Siddall Corregidora : corporeal archaeology, embodied memory, improvisation -- Nina Sun Eidsheim and Mandy-Suzanne Wong Theorizing the saxophonic scream in free jazz improvisation -- Zachary Wallmark Extemporaneous genomics : Nicole Mitchell, Octavia Butler, and Xenogenesis -- Kevin McNeilly and Julie Dawn Smith Representation and identity. Faster and louder : heterosexist improvisation in North American taiko -- Deborah Wong Improvisation and the audibility of difference : safa, Canadian multiculturalism, and the politics of recognition -- Ellen Waterman Performing the national body politic in twenty-first-century Argentina -- Illa Carrillo Rodríguez and Berenice Corti. The contributors to Negotiated Moments explore how subjectivity is formed and expressed through musical improvisation, tracing the ways the transmission and reception of sound occur within and between bodies in real and virtual time and across memory, history, and space. They place the gendered, sexed, raced, classed, disabled, and technologized body at the center of critical improvisation studies and move beyond the field's tendency toward celebrating improvisation's utopian and democratic ideals by highlighting the improvisation of marginalized subjects. Rejecting a singular theory of improvisational agency, the contributors show how improvisation helps people gain hard-won and highly contingent agency. Essays include analyses of the role of the body and technology in performance, improvisation's ability to disrupt power relations, Pauline Oliveros's ideas about listening, flautist Nicole Mitchell's compositions based on Octavia Butler's science fiction, and an interview with Judith Butler about the relationship between her work and improvisation. The contributors' close attention to improvisation provides a touchstone for examining subjectivities and offers ways to hear the full spectrum of ideas that sound out from and resonate within and across bodies. Contributors. George Blake, David Borgo, Judith Butler, Rebecca Caines, Louise Campbell, Illa Carrillo Rodriguez, Berenice Corti, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Nina Eidsheim, Tomie Hahn, Jaclyn Heyen, Christine Sun Kim, Catherine Lee, Andra McCartney, Tracy McMullen, Kevin McNeilly, Leaf Miller, Jovana Milovic, Francois Mouillot, Pauline Oliveros, Jason Robinson, Neil Rolnick, Simon Rose, Gillian Siddall, Julie Dawn Smith, Jesse Stewart, Clara Tomaz, Sherrie Tucker, Lindsay Vogt, Zachary Wallmark, Ellen Waterman, David Whalen, Pete Williams, Deborah Wong, Mandy-Suzanne Wong Cover Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Improvising at the Nexus of Discursive and Material Bodies 1. Improvisation within a Scene of Constraint: An Interview with Judith Butler Part I. Listening, Place, and Space 2. “How Am I to Listen to You?”: Soundwalking, Intimacy, and Improvised Listening 3. Community Sound [e]Scapes: Improvising Bodies and Site/Space/Place in New Media Audio Art Part II. Technology and Embodiment 4. Improvising Composition: How to Listen in the Time Between 5. The Networked Body: Physicality, Embodiment, and Latency in Multisite Performance 6. Openness from Closure: The Puzzle of Interagency in Improvised Music and a Neocybernetic Solution 7. Mediating the Improvising Body: Art Tatum’s Postmortem Performance in a Posthuman World Part III. Sensibility and Subjectivity 8. Banding Encounters: Embodied Practices in Improvisation 9. Learning to Go with the Flow: David Rokeby’s Very Nervous System and the Improvising Body 10. Stretched Boundaries: Improvising across Abilities Part IV. Gender, Trauma, and Memory 11. The Erotics of Improvisation in Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on Your Knees 12. Corregidora: Corporeal Archaeology, Embodied Memory, Improvisation 13. Theorizing the Saxophonic Scream in Free Jazz Improvisation 14. Extemporaneous Genomics: Nicole Mitchell, Octavia Butler, and Xenogenesis Part V. Representation and Identity 15. Faster and Louder: Heterosexist Improvisation in North American Taiko 16. Improvisation and the Audibility of Difference: Safa, Canadian Multiculturalism, and the Politics of Recognition 17. Performing the National Body Politic in Twenty-First-Century Argentina Discography References Contributors Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Z Placing the body at the center of critical improvisation studies, the contributors to Negotiated Moments explore the challenges of negotiating subjectivity through improvisation in various forms—from jazz, Japanese taiko drumming, and Iranian classical music to sound walking and political street theater.