In a world that conceives planning (composition, prevention…) as the ideal of action and achievement, both in the sciences and the arts, improvisation tends to be thought of as a last resort: the extreme final measure resorted to when all previous options or instances have failed or proven insufficient. In this context, choosing to improvise becomes a critical practice, one that reclaims notions and actions that run against the grain of established order: “error,” spontaneity, negotiation during the creative process, unplanned or unplannable emergent phenomena, surprising actions, interactions and production processes, the generation and transformation of materials, an attitude open to (inter)exchange, open and fortuitous endings or outcomes…
Yet this very fact reveals, in reverse, the impressive potential of improvisatory attitudes and practices. Improvisation not only deconstructs rationalities, plans, outcomes and idealized attitudes; it also (de)monstrates that it was always there, without having been named and appreciated for its constructive—but also critical and demystifying—potential.
It is this critical potential of improvising that we wish to invite participants to trace, discuss, investigate, showcase and experiment with in this interdisciplinary symposium, aimed at interested researchers and artists.
The Latin American context, and this congress in particular, seem to us a good opportunity to connect those who engage with improvisation from different perspectives (musical practice or other disciplines, teaching at different levels, research, etc.): are there practices or perspectives on improvisation specific to Latin America?
