Improvisation as a research methodology: exploring links between filmmakers’ practice and traditions of enquiry across the academy

Abstract

This article concentrates on one form of creative practice, improvisation, considering how it has been used as an experimental method within filmmaking as well as in research enquiry. Drawing on my professional experience in the field of narrative fiction filmmaking, as well as interviews with film professionals, I show how a close examination of improvising processes opens up illuminating points of comparison with research methodologies across the academy. This article is an interdisciplinary review, drawing together ideas about improvisation beyond film, looking broadly across the creative arts and most pointedly, drawing an unexpected link between practice research in film and the traditions of laboratory research methodologies within Social Psychology. KEYWORDS Improvisation; research methodology; practice research; The Stanford Prison Experiment; Performance-Centred Mode. Improvisation in creative practice is analogous to the processes of knowledge production in academic research. By definition, improvisation involves the discovery of creative outcomes; traditions that have used it extensively, such as theatre and music, engage in this experimental process with the intention of generating a performance that may either have immediate significance to a present audience, or as a studio practice designed to accumulate ideas in the devising of a future performance. For the performer, improvisation is a process of exploration. The creative goal of the exercise may be quite loosely defined, but the revelations achieved through improvisation are intended to have artistic impact. The obvious similarities with the process of academic research have stimulated a field of studies 1 and detailed scholarly attention, primarily in musicology and performance. In this article, I will present an overview of how improvisation is studied in a range of fields, before looking in detail at how certain filmmakers have deployed it as a creative practice. The final section presents surprising similarities between the improvisation

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