Exchange Talk: Resonant Networks: Feminist Improvisation across Sites, Identities and Technologies

Jessica Argo will share audio visual documentation and reflective insights from an article in press for Improfil Journal: Theory and Practice of Improvised Music, from the International Instititute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. The article was written, pondered and collated across multiple geographies – from India to Scotland and England – and from diverse experiences of migration, travel and belonging. A piece, titled Unbound, inspired by the River Yamuna was created by Surbhi Mittal and performed by Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO) and International Contemporary Ensemble at GlOfest XVI in November 2024, CCA Glasgow, and in Delhi with Synth Ensemble, February 2025. She will outline the processes of collaboration which informed Surbhi’s creation of Unbound.  By sharing a detailed account of how this piece was created and performed, we offer practice-based insight into the intersecting fields of improvisation, gender studies and socio-technologies. Jessica drawa on feminist creative practices which have improvisation as a central process (e.g. Krekels, 2019) as well as gender and identity expression with and through technology (e.g. Russell, 2020). The potential of telematic collaboration as an emancipatory practice, particularly for marginalised groups, will be also discussed (e.g. Sappho, 2022). From Surbhi Mittal, Delhi; Jessica Argo, Glasgow; Una MacGlone, Glasgow; Maria Sappho, Huddersfield

Dr. Jessica Argo is Programme Leader for BDes Sound for Moving Image at Glasgow School of Art, a composer for improvising ensembles and an experimental filmmaker/sound artist, drawn to music for community world-building – improvisation to bridge international distance and sustain intergenerational learning; improvising for queer affirmation; deep listening, emotional expression, mood regulation and liberation from patriarchal, ableist and economic oppression.  Argo uses embodied synthesis (Moog Theremini, contact microphones, voice) to conjure alien sound, extended from her physical body or other acoustic bodies (cello). She has conducted neuroscience research, films in white cube galleries, dance clubs and hybrid room-and-ZOOM orchestra theatre performance.

Image credit Brian Hartley