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Improvisation as ‘a force for growth and evolution’

Concordia professor Eldad Tsabary’s brings his focus on collaborative interdisciplinary learning to a major conference in Bali this month
September 20, 2016
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By Renée Dunk


“Improv demonstrates emotional and leadership aspects of those involved." | Photos by Concordia University “Improv demonstrates emotional and leadership aspects of those involved." | Photos by Concordia University


Can improvisation in electronic music create new pathways for learning? Eldad Tsabary, assistant professor in Concordia’s Department of Music, thinks so.

He’ll be presenting his research on the topic in a keynote address at the third annual International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Bali this month.

Tsabary uses his work in electroacoustic studies and as director of the Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk) — where computers are used as live musical instruments — to map how improvisation helps us learn and share.

Under Tsabary's leadership, CLOrk has performed physically and telematically with symphonic, jazz, chamber and laptop orchestras worldwide, and collaborated with dancers and video artists, most often in improvisational contexts.

“How we obtain knowledge is complex,” explains Tsabary. “With the laptop orchestra, I’ve been studying improvisation as a force for growth and evolution.”
 


Unlike traditional study, Tsabary uses “educational action research,” where the instructor and students are collaborating stakeholders in the learning and creative processes. In this environment, all participants are involved in modifying the studied approach in response to emerging facts and knowledge. He says that action research doesn’t give conclusions per se, but offers new ways of understanding.

“It’s a democratic setting where everyone can contribute, and a mechanism to self-study the collective’s nature and relationships,” he says. “Improv demonstrates emotional and leadership aspects of those involved; so in addition to creating new art, we gain knowledge about how we learn and create in a group setting.”

Tsabary will be giving his keynote address on September 22, the opening day of the International Conference on Arts and Humanities. His research ties well into the conference track called “Networked Humanity: Computer Mediated Human Interactions.”

What initially drew Tsabary to the gathering in Bali was its internationality. “There are huge research communities in Asia that I don’t know very well,” he admits. “Also, the broad interdisciplinarity provides an opportunity for researchers to discuss the complexity of human knowledge and relationships beyond disciplinary conventions.”
 

Find out more about Concordia’s Electroacoustic Studies Program.

 



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