Improvising – potential for cultural education

Abstract

The 13th annual conference of the Network Research Cultural Education in September 2022 at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences dealt with the topic: improvise. Research and artistic perspectives of cultural education. If you look at the meaning of the word “improvise”, two explanations come into question:

1. Latin “ex improviso” means “from the unforeseen”. Here the focus is on the unknown, the surprising
2. the Italian “improvvisare”, on the other hand, refers to the practice of unprepared, extemporaneous singing or poetry – so it already has a clear artistic meaning.

It is interesting that, on the one hand, “improvisation” is often used in everyday language in connection with situations that turn out differently than we had planned. Improvising then means looking for an emergency solution that is actually not as good as what was originally intended. On the other hand, improvisation is considered a very established and artistically high-quality way of acting in various artistic disciplines.

In the sense of an extended conference documentation, this discourse on improvisational action, learning and teaching will be continued in a kubi online dossier. This video, a cinematic interview with Prof. Dr. Juliane Gerlang, organizer of the network conference, introduces the conference topic and explores the following questions:

• What does improvise mean?
• What does it actually mean to improvise?
• What distinguishes improvisation in different artistic disciplines?
• To what extent does improvisation support artistic and educational processes throughout the lifespan?
• What research is there to improvise?
• To what extent can improvisation skills be interesting beyond the context of art and culture?