Performing Reflection 2.0
Reflection as a central tool for developing as an improvisor. Reflection as a means of facilitating a state of flow during performance (Csikszentmihalyi 2009). Reflection as a method for developing new approaches to practice. Reflection before, during, and after action as a framework for research.
Where do we go from here? The knowledge gathered up to this point, once again shaped by external factors and evolving needs, paved the way for the development and realization of the final act. The conclusion as an unavoidable destination.
The practice developed during Performing Reflection 1.0 revealed its limitations—already apparent after the first performance and confirmed in subsequent ones. Sustaining this practice proved too overwhelming for the performer, and to cope, I would fall back on certain tried-and-true responses, recollections, and phrases. It felt as if I were going through a highly accelerated process of developing verbal “licks”—predictable responses to specific situations that I knew would elicit a desired reaction from the audience, or that would help me continue my train of thought in a preferred direction. I began to sense that the most interesting aspect of the practice was quickly nearing its end. The spontaneity of the initial performance was giving way to something resembling a stand-up routine. Avoiding this development seemed nearly impossible due to the cognitive demands of juggling playing with reflecting. Interestingly, it felt as though a particular part of my personality had taken over the reflective role, a part most comfortable showing itself to the world.
The way out of this conundrum was to externalize the practice by finding someone who could introduce a verbal element into the proceedings. The solution came from a dear colleague and fellow critical improvisation studies aficionado, Mathias Maschat: a scholar, organizer, and researcher who leads the Denkraum and library of the exploratorium berlin, a private institution dedicated to improvisational arts, research, and pedagogy. After a brief explanation of the preceding projects and my needs, he immediately had a name for me: Christian Grüny. Christian had recently taken part in a performance at the exploratorium berlin, where he introduced a practice that was exactly what I had been searching for—improvised philosophy.
The second aspect was the need to assemble an ensemble through which I could further develop the practice methods established throughout the project. What I did not anticipate was the complexity that verbal reflection would introduce into the process. The addition of a seemingly non-musical element turned out to be a major driving force behind many of the reflective discussions that emerged during the subsequent stages of development.
Finally, a critical aspect was the end point, in this case a three-day residency at the Music Biennale Zagreb. The festival’s organizers reached out to me with the idea of including an improvised performance in the program at precisely the moment I was devising the final iteration of the project. This created a natural arc: we had a starting point—the duo with Christian Grüny—and a final goal: an eight-person improvisation ensemble with an improvising philosopher. We also had a preliminary structure for the working process and a set of guiding questions. The only thing left was to connect these two points through a year of focused work.
The initial development of the project with Christian was made possible by artistic research funding from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The project description attempted to distill all the knowledge developed up to that point into two simple points:
1. Improvisation comes as a result of a complex framework of preparation – In the context of music, this includes both standardized musical knowledge and a broader perspective that attempts to direct consciousness at specific meta-levels of musical action.
2. Improvisation involves rules – Improvisation is an action that is bound to a specific context. As with any action, improvisation necessitates a goal.
From this, we can conclude that improvisation is another form of controlled action–a controlled loss of control. Successful improvisation requires high levels of rule-adaption and the ability of continuously providing an answer to a series of unexpected contingencies. During the process of improvisation, the performer continuously shifts between flow states and reflective states, interacting both with their surroundings and their internal cognitive framework.
This research project presupposes the existence of a wealth of embodied knowledge, which constitutes the framework of improvisatory practice. This knowledge influences states of flow and reflection during performance. The project aims to show aspects of this knowledge through a construction of a performative practice which will allow musical statements and reflection to exist simultaneously. In this process, we wish to design new ways in which practice and research can intersect. Such a performance framework will allow, on one hand, the development of new improvisational methodologies and, on the other, a way to deepen our understanding of the underlying cognitive processes that occur during a performance of free improvised music. In the construction of a reflective performance context, we will also gain the possibility of showcasing the underlying framework of improvisation to a wider audience.
It is interesting to observe how the description of a project yet to be realized can both hint at undiscovered truths and lead us down completely unexpected paths. In the pages that follow, we can see how this initial state created a framework that quickly took on a life of its own as soon as the first interactions began to unfold. In this sense, we can observe striking similarities between this type of research and the practice of improvisation itself. No matter how much we try to fix a starting point or anticipate the development of the process, we inevitably find ourselves in situations where we must respond to a series of unforeseen events.