Improvising Ecosystems

A collaboration among musicians, artists, cultural knowledge keepers, composers, and dancers, Improvising Ecosystems is catalyzed by visits to ecological sites and the related field research of scientists. The Improvising Ecosystems collaborative continues to develop its practice of attuning to these sites through direct sensory experience, field recordings, intuition, and ways of knowing that are informed by our varied disciplinary perspectives. This active, emergent process has led us to create a form of public presentation that can be best described as performed installations. Inspired by a creative research focus that is increasingly centered on modes of improvisation and our experiences with dynamic bodies of water, we will share an improvised sketch of a participatory, performed installation followed by a discussion of our process, insights, and questions.

Diane Willow is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Art with a focus on new genres, interdisciplinary collaboration, and participatory culture. A multi-modal artist and creative catalyst, by any medium necessary best describes her process of creating work that invites people to participate as choreographers of their experience of art.

Maja Radovanlija is a concert guitarist, improviser, and lecturer on the faculty at the School of Music. Her interest in experimental and improvisational music grew at the same time as her interest in different approaches within the classical guitar repertoire.

Scott Currie is a composer/sound artist/performer. He co-founded the UMN Contemporary Music Workshop and works as the Music Technology Specialist in the School of Music.

Michael Duffy serves on the Creative Studies and Media faculty as a lecturer on musicology and ethnomusicology in the School of Music. His research to date has focused on ethnographic studies of avant-garde jazz practice in New York City and Berlin, as well as inquiry into issues of cross-cultural improvisation and musical meaning.