Workroom Conversation: On Improvisation
Join us for the final event in our 2019 Workroom Conversation series looking at questions around improvisation across different practices from music to architecture. We see improvisation as a fundamental way people relate to the world with capacity to loosen up and informalise social life. Improvising is also a survival strategy when, individuals or groups are challenged by unforeseen events. In the arts, improvising makes freedom of expression possible. It is a craft that requires practice to make a master.
Each session opens with two invited practitioners sharing their take on what improvisation is to them and how they use it in their practice to stimulate a broader discussion. For this final session, the invited speakers are Ursula Dimitriou and Laura Cannell – Richard Sennett, of Theatrum Mundi, will moderate.
The Workroom Conversations are ‘backstage’: there is no audience. Instead, we invite practitioners to share, debate, challenge and enrich. These are conversations rather than public forums. We would be delighted for you to join as many of these as you would like to and bring your ideas to the workbench.
Registration is essential.
Ursula (Orsalia) Dimitriou is practicing architect and a researcher. She holds a Diploma in Architecture Engineering from NTUAthens, an MA in Art and Architecture from UPC in Barcelona and a PhD on Commons and Public Space from the department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths University. Her research interests include design as a political tool, commons and public space, urban insurgencies, grassroot practices, theatrical and ephemeral interventions in urban space, participatory design and social sustainability. Ursula has is leading design studios at the University of Westminster and Central Saint Martins. She is the co-director of SYN, an interdisciplinary design studio based in London.
Laura Cannell is a composer and performer who draws on the emotional influences of the landscape both rural and urban, real and imagined. With deconstructed violin bow and double recorders, she performs semi-composed, semi-improvised pieces which explore the spaces between ancient and experimental. Laura has released five critically acclaimed albums since 2014, and is regularly broadcast throughout the world including: BBC Radio 3, 4, 6Music, The World Service, Polish National Radio and NPR. Her albums have featured in many end of year lists including: The Guardian, MOJO, BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, The Wire and The Quietus. Recent projects include creating music for film, broadcast work for BBC Radio 3, “Reckonings” (2018) a collaborative album with Andre Bosman, tours with the cellist Lori Goldston (Earth, Nirvana) & collaborations with This Heat drummer Charles Hayward & Mira Calix, as well as commissions for Hampton Court Palace, The Immix Ensemble, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra & The Zuckerman Museum of Contemporary Art (US).