Envisioning Autonomy through Improvising and Composing: Castoriadis visiting creative music education practice

Abstract

Do psychological perspectives constitute the only way through which the role of musical creativity in education can be addressed, researched and theorised? This essay attempts to offer an alternative view of musical creativity as a deeply social and political form of human praxis, by proposing a perspective rooted in the thought of the political philosopher and activist Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997). This is done in two steps. First, an attempt is made to place the pursuit of the concept of musical creativity within a larger educational and societal context of conflicting trajectories that run through (a) Modernity and (b) Education. Then, I revisit the issue of educational value of improvising and composing through creating conceptual links between the process of music‐making through improvisation and composition and the project of political autonomy as conceived by Castoriadis. By foregrounding instituting imaginary over instituted imaginary, improvising and composing become active processes of positing new legitimacies, and of creating a music‐making context that searches for its own foundations. It is in and through creative musical praxis that we can think about issues of hierarchies, musical values, social dimensions of different music‐making processes, our relationship to past values and to historical dimensions of music. By arguing that improvisation and composition might be seen as ways of positing the issue of political autonomy in musical terms, this paper emphasises the role of improvisation and composition as a mode of potentially transformative educational practice that may foster the development of critical consciousness, linking music education to a larger project of re‐discovering and at the same time re‐defining democracy.

Creativity, autonomy and Dalcroze Eurhythmics: An arts practice exploration

“…Such aspects of ‘cloning’ are prevalent in many conservatoires and both the work of Jaques-Dalcroze and this research has highlighted how important it is to embed autonomy into instrumental classical music education and to avoid acting by rules alone (Vanderspar, 1992). In my teaching I also feel I have to fight for autonomy against a system that often cares more about exam results and competitions, rather than fostering a sense of self confidence and creativity in students (Kanellopoulos, 2012).…”

Desplazamientos de la filosofía de la música: una reflexión sobre la literatura del siglo XXI

“…Creación musical (Kanellopoulos, 2012;Wilson, 2014) Música como hecho cultural (Kleinman, 2015;Mueller, 2012); músicas étnicas (Borio, 2009;Perman, 2011), músicas e identidades (Martinelli, 2008). Antropología Significado de la música (Adorno, 2003(Adorno, , 2009 Música como hecho social (Walser, 2003); procesos de creación (Radigales & Fraile-Prieto, 2006), distribución (Porta Navarro, 2007 y consumo musical (Leslie & Rantisi, 2019).…”

A Theory of Imagination for Organization Studies Using the Work of Cornelius Castoriadis

“…It also enables us to re-signify and reimagine organizations and organizing differently, suggesting that critique is not all we have in dealing with these limits. Through the Castoriadian ontology we are better able to imagine the form that such reconfigurations might take in organizing, not simply as a challenge of instituted (individualized, ‘psychologized’, or rationalized) reality, but moreover as active carriers of new legitimacies, creating organizational contexts that ‘search for their own foundations’ (Kanellopoulos, 2012, p. 169). In that sense representation can be seen, for instance, as the ability of imagination to transcend the barriers of existing images of capitalist future conjured up through dominant discourse (see de Cock et al, 2013; Michel, 2011) that is detailed in the concluding section of the paper.…”

“…Further, the concept of affect in the Castoriadian imagination enables movement beyond the apolitical and asocial conception of organizational practice associated with change and creativity (de Cock et al, 2013) and permits us instead to see such practice as a condition of being on both ‘the level of the individual and that of the social-historical’ (Kanellopoulos, 2012, p. 169). Because organizing is driven by imagination (which is a psychic as well as a social process), organizations are defined by both the imagining process and its outcome (comprising individuals’ desires and affects and socially established norms, narratives and discourses) – they are products of the imagination of societies at any given time.…”