The lecture presents results of an ongoing research on contemporary improvisational practices. Based on current theories of sociomateriality, the corporeal, technological and spatial dimensions of different improvisation practices will be comparatively presented. The theoretical starting point is based on the premises of neo-materialist practice theory and actor-network theory, according to which practices consist of a networking of human and non-human actors, whereby the bodies and artifacts of practice are only produced through this networking process (Latour, Mol, Shove). Furthermore, in order to analyze the broad spectrum of human-technology relations in musical performance, philosphical and sociological theories of technological mediation are applied (Ihde, Verbeek, Stiegler, Hennion, Grusin).<\/p>\n
The guiding questions are how improvisational practices produce genre-specific human-artifact assemblages, what different concepts of ‘musical improvisation’ are engendered, and what concepts of sound, subject, technology and space emerge in the process. To be taken into account with regard to the role of sound aesthetics and music technologies is the concept of post-digitality as a common historical reference point of current improvisational practice (Cramer, Hodgson, Mazierska\/Gillon\/Rigg)). Furthermore, it seems necessary to address the fundamental question of the conditions of creativity and musical practice in times of posthumanism and post-anthropocentrism (Barad, Braidotti, Tomlinson).The overall goal is, first, to develop approaches to answer questions of musical production and creativity from a post-anthropocentric perspective and, second, to address not only the possibilities but also the undeniable problems of these approaches.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n