Improvisation as an Evolutionary Force in Laptop Orchestra Culture

Abstract

Laptop orchestras are electroacoustic ensembles of digital instruments such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, and various controllers, often enriched by analog modular synthesizers, DIY circuitry, or other electric or electronic devices used to generate or process sound. These orchestras constitute a diverse global performance practice that relies on improvisation to evolve-both locally in each ensemble and globally as an art form. Laptop orchestras engage with varying artistic, social, and technological media that are alocal in nature-that do not necessarily manifest identifiable cultural traits associated with the ensembles' localities or their members' cultural origins. While a complex web of cultural, geographical, and social influences clearly affects the training, perceptual habits, and creative, improvisational practices of these orchestras, such influences are too varied and rapidly changing to be isolated or traced. While some argue that the history of laptop orchestra performance is rooted in Western traditions (see Jeff Albert, "Improvisation as Tool and Intention"), its perceptual alocality and technological bases are better understood as the product of global, social performance networks. From the untraceable, alocal multilocality of laptop orchestras a dynamic, evolving improvisatory musical culture has emerged. Improvisation has always been at the heart of the laptop ensemble. Many performances include novel logistical settings and collaborative forms, technologies, and sonic structures. An emphasis on new instrument design and a shared drive to innovate has opened the way for many new modes of improvisation, including with DIY interfaces (Arduino open-source software, for instance), through processing-rather than generating-sound, and with loopbased material, among many others. Navigating these unchartered territories demands rapid, creative responses to emergent possibilities and challenges.In this essay, I argue that laptop orchestra practices-due to their tradition-defying, multidimensional, hybridic nature at the cultural, stylistic, geographical, personal, social, and technological levels-should be approached as a culture of related behaviours and beliefs rather than as a genre. I focus on how non-idiomatic improvisation serves as a crucial local and global evolutionary force within laptop orchestra culture by breaking with old patterns to discover new expressive possibilities, by creating new sui generis patterns, and by developing skills that radically expand improvisatory strategies. Laptop ensembles transform their creative output, modes of interaction and perception, and technology by exploring new settings, problems, and solutions.

Agents stabilisateurs et déstabilisateurs dans l’improvisation en orchestre d’ordinateurs portatifs

“…Allowing mistakes is not a form of compromise, but rather a strategy for inviting innovation. Mistakes are like genetic mutations that lead towards the potential evolution of the ensemble's improvisatory sound (Tsabary 2017). In improvisation communities, mistakes are viewed as necessary "points of creative departure" (Barrett 1998, 611)-they make improvisations better.…”

“…Improvisation can bring us to a state of flow in which our interaction with our surroundings feels natural, immediate, connected, and enjoyable (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Moreover, improvisation can catalyze our artistic evolution (Neeman 2014;Tsabary 2017) as we explore new domains of expression and experiment with new technologies, instruments, and musical settings.…”

“…This view is supported by Student 6's statement that "the best improvised passages occurred during rehearsals [...] when people would feel freer to jam." These views are not necessarily in opposition, however, as collective improvisation may be completely free and aimed at breaking away from old patterns, or restrictive and designed to establish new skills or new compositions (Tsabary 2017). The beauty of collectiveness is that seemingly conflicting ideas can be integrated into wider intelligent networks designed to contain them and produce a shared, complex end result.…”

“…It may be addressed by making a conscious choice to engage the body with artificial gestures, as is sometimes done in laptop orchestras (Ogborn 2014;Hwang 2012). Another common solution is to compensate for the lack of body language with on-screen chat communications (Freeman and Van Troyer 2011;Ogborn 2012;Tsabary 2017), a mode of communication that is very familiar to us in today's society, especially via mobile devices. Indeed, many CLOrk students praised chat as a means of making connections during collective improvisation: "[The] use of the cellphone chat was hugely successful and acted as the invisible baton of the conductor" (Student 2); "it was a very effective [means] for guiding performances in a live setting by connecting many people" (Student 6); " [Chat] helped us greatly to direct each other, or initiate endings/beginnings of pieces, or saying something was lacking in the piece" (Student 1); and "Using the chat to tell people to suddenly take risks really seemed to work in my mind!"…”

A Managed Risk: Mediated Musicianships in a Networked Laptop Orchestra

“…Another motivation was that improvisation was clearly more efficient than composition. Plans could be decided upon, communicated to inexperienced newcomers, and tested with a minimum of rehearsal time, leaving more time for technical troubleshooting (Tsabary and Woolard, 2014;Tsabary 2016).…”