December 2007

Improvisation: Freedom and Tradition - A Symposium

This three-day event focussed on improvisation in music and other arts was jointly organised by Sally Jane Norman (Culture Lab) and David Clarke and Bennett Hogg (ICMuS) and involved a mix of presentations and improvisations from various musical traditions as well as dance. Short presentations contributed to a round-table exchange of ideas and spontaneous discussions, combined with short demonstrations of improvisation using technology, and performances across a broad range of different improvising traditions.

The symposium was organised into four main session:
• Improvisation: Pre-existent Materials and Found Objects
• Improvisation and Performance
• Interfacing the musician (the body) and sound
• Improvisation and Consciousness, Spirituality, Religion

Session chairs
Lars Iyer (lecturer in Philosophy, Newcastle)
Atau Tanaka (professor of Digital Media, Newcastle)
Sally Jane Norman (director, Culture Lab)
Bennett Hogg (lecturer in Music, Newcastle)

Presenters
Paul Attinello (senior lecturer in Music, Newcastle)
David Clarke (professor of Music, Newcastle)
Paul Bell (research student, Newcastle)
Will Edmondes (lecturer in Music, Newcastle)
John Ferguson (research student, Newcastle)
Tim Garland (artist-in-residence, Newcastle University)
David Hughes (independent hardware developer and musician)
Shahbaz Hussain (Indian Classical Music tabla player)
Adam Parkinson (research student, Newcastle)
Vijay Rajput (Indian Classical Music vocalist)
Gretchen Schiller (lecturer, Brunel University)
Julian Siegel (Saxophonist, BBC Jazz Musician of the Year 2007)
Nick Williams (research student, Newcastle)
Magnus Williamson (senior lecturer in Music, Newcastle)
Richard Wistreich (senior lecturer in Music, Newcastle)

Video Documentation