New Directions in Musical Collaborative Creativity: The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and the Theater of Home

During the COVID-19 pandemic, creative communities were faced with unprecedented challenges and forced to embark upon a re-evaluation of traditional approaches to artistic collaboration. In the wake of these discussions and experiments, New Directions in Musical Collaborative Creativity asks how new technology can be used to enhance creativity and how this creativity increases our knowledge in relation to musical interactions in group contexts. Focusing on a case study of a leading musical improvisation group--the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and their online music sessions established during the COVID-19 lockdowns of March 2020--the book’s five authors probe the transformative impact of online and hybrid improvisation and explore the crucial role of interactive (visual and sound) technology in the emergence of new identities and hybrid working practices.

Virtual improvising, though a relatively new type of creative activity, has significant implications for how researchers can better understand improvisation generally as well as musical interactions in non-virtual environments. The book’s topics range from an overview of digital music frameworks to an investigation of how improvisations begin and end, the unique context of the online sessions, the integration of audio and visual stimuli to produce audio-visual compositions, and new types of creative activities. The authors explore how improvisation--and online improvising in particular--can engender a fresh sense of community while presenting innovative opportunities for experimentation, communication, community involvement, educational enrichment, the cultivation of new virtuosities, and the promotion of health and well-being. Furthermore, they delve into the ramifications of these insights for education and health, emphasising the importance of new technologies and their potential to produce significant creative breakthroughs.

Ultimately, the book points us toward novel manifestations of technologically-mediated and community-centred creative engagement, delineating avenues for future advancement and scholarly investigation. Bringing together a multidisciplinary and cross-generational author team with a wealth of complementary academic and artistic experience, this book responds to the significant growth in interest in improvisation as a musical and artistic practice and situates this research within the study of collaborative creativity in the contemporary ＂hybrid＂ context. A companion website features a series of films that document sessions of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, showing the innovative collaborative artistic practices as they emerged.

Raymond MacDonald is a saxophonist and Professor of Music Psychology and Improvisation at Edinburgh University. His co-edited texts include, Musical Identities, Musical Communication, Music Health and Wellbeing, Musical Imaginations and, The Handbook of Music Identities and he co-authored (with Graeme Wilson) The Art of Becoming: How Group Improvisation Works. He was head of music at Edinburgh University from 2013-2017 and editor of the Journal Psychology of Music from 2006-2012. He is a co-founder of The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, has produced music for film, television, theatre and art installations, released over 60 albums and toured and broadcast worldwide.

Tia DeNora is Professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter. Her books include Hope: the dream we carry, Music in Everyday Life, and Music Asylums: Music and Wellbeing in Everyday Life. She was Principal Investigator on the AHRC Care for Music project (2019-2023). She is a Leverhulme Major Fellow working on Island Life and Death, an ethnography of cultural change around death, dying and bereavement. DeNora is also a Fellow of the British Academy.

Maria Sappho is a Newyorican artist and researcher currently working in the UK. She gained her PhD from the University of Huddersfield as part of the European Research Council project Interactive Research in Music as Sound (IRiMaS) and continues this work as a postdoctoral research fellow on the Digital Playgrounds for Music project. She is also the module coordinator for experimental improvisation at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is a Masters supervisor at the Institute for Contemporary Music Performance. Sappho is a co-founder of the Chimere Communities project, which brings AI into marginalised, artistic, and activist spaces on a global scale. She is a founding member of both the Noisebringers ensemble and the Brutalust duo and has played with the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra for eight years. She is a winner of the BBC radiophonic Daphne Oram award.

Robert Burke is an Australian improvising musician and composer, and Associate Professor of Jazz and Improvisation at The Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University, Australia. He has performed and composed on over 300 album releases, collaborating with George Lewis, Raymond MacDonald, Hermeto Pascoal, Dave Douglas, Tony Malaby, Ben Monder, Tom Rainey, Tony Gould, Paul Grabowsky and Mark Helias. He is the author of Perspectives on Artistic Research in Music and Experimentation in Jazz: Idea Chasing. Burke’s research focuses on jazz and improvisational processes investigating what happens during improvisation, including investigation into the phenomenology of musical interaction, experimentation, identity, agency and gender studies. He is also the current president of AJIRN (Australasian Jazz and Improvisation Research Network).

Ross Birrell is Professor of Contemporary Art Practice and Critical Theory and Senior Researcher at Glasgow School of Art. His interdisciplinary creative practice research is predominantly situated in the field of site-specific/contextual art and moving image/audio installation, and explores inter-relationships between music, poetry, politics, and place.