Improvisation and the Creative Process: Dewey, Collingwood, and the Aesthetics of

Spontaneity
Author(s): R. Keith Sawyer
Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 58, No. 2, Improvisation in the Arts,
(Spring, 2000), pp. 149-161
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/432094
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 R. KEITH SAWYER

Improvisationand the CreativeProcess:

Dewey, Collingwood, and the Aesthetics
of Spontaneity
Improvisationalperformancehas been neglected language."Improvisationalperformanceis rele-
by many fields that study creativityand the arts, vant to the empiricalstudy of all creative genres
including both philosophy and psychology. Psy- for two centralreasons.First,the creativeprocess
chologists, for example, have focused on prod- that goes on in the mind of a creatoris generally
uct creativity:activities that result in objective, inaccessible to the researcher,in partbecause it
ostensible products-paintings, sculptures,mu- occursin fits andstarts,overlong timeperiods.But
sical scores which remainafterthe creativeact is an improvisedperformanceis createdin the mo-
complete.Productcreativitygenerallyinvolves a ment, onstage, and can easily be observedby the
long period of creative work leading up to the researcher.Second, many improvisationalper-
creative product.In contrast,in improvisational formancegenresare fundamentallycollaborative.
performance,the creativeprocess is the product; Observingthis collaborationonstageis relatively
the audience is watching the creative process as straightforward,comparedto the difficulties of
it occurs. observing the many forms of collaborationthat
My primaryresearchinterestis everydaycon- contributeto the generationof a work of art.
versation,and I began to study aestheticsand the
psychology of creativity after I observed that
everydayconversationis creativelyimprovised-
there is no script that guides a conversation.My In his studio,Picasso is paintingfree-form,with-
empiricalresearchhas focused on three types of out preconceivedimage or composition;he is ex-
improvised discourse: improvisational theater, perimentingwith colors, forms, and moods. He
children's fantasy play, and everyday conversa- startswith a figure of a reclining nude-but then
tion.' In my theoreticalwritings, I use these im- loses interest, and the curve of the woman's leg
provisationalphenomenato addressseveralissues reminds him of a matador's leg as he flies
in contemporarypsychology and social theory- through the air after being gored by a bull-so he
the tension between structureand practice, is- paints over the nude and creates an image of a
sues of textuality,discourse,structureversusplay, bull and matador.But this leads him to yet an-
and heteroglossia.2Thus my theoreticalframe- otheridea;he paintsover the bullfightimage and
work has evolved from the empiricallygrounded begins work on a Mediterraneanharbor-with
attemptto identify and characterizespecific in- water-skier,bathersin bikinis, and a picturesque
teractionalmechanisms that are used to create a hilltop village.
collective improvisationalperformance. The free-forminspirationcontinues.Five hours
In this paper,I will focus on some philosophical later,Picasso stops and declaresthathe will have to
implicationsof my evolving analysesof improvi- discardthe canvas-it has not worked.But the time
sationalgroup performanceIn. this discussion, I will was not wasted-he has discovered some new ideas,
make explicit the relationshipsbetween im- ideas that have emerged from his in-teractionwith
provisationalperformanceand product-oriented the canvas, ideas thathe can use in his next
arts such as painting,writing,and music compo- painting. Picasso says, "Now that I begin to see
sition, by drawing on Dewey's model of "artas where I'm going with it, I'll take a new canvas and
experience"and Collingwood's model of "artas startagain."
The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism58:2
Spring2000
150 The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Improvisational creativity Product creativity

Type of Immediate Delayed
interaction (single reception) (multiplereceptions)

Mediation Ephemeralsigns Ostensible products

Creative process Public, collective, coincident Private,individual,distinct
with product from/generatesproduct
Figure 1. Some differences between improvisational and product creativity.
 creatorbefore the has perhapsbeen easy
productis to neglect.Althoughim-
This five-hour provisationaltheater,the
displayed.4Product provisational creativity
improvisationwas actorscollectively cre-
creativity is found in has not been a subject
capturedin ate an
artistic domains such for aesthetics, it may
the Claude Renoir film, emergentdialogue; like
as sculpture, painting, actually representa
The Mystery of Picasso, and musical jazz, this process is, in
more common, more
using time-lapse compositions. This fact, the essence of
accessible form of
photography.3I always focus in psychology is improvised perform-
creativity.If one
show the Picasso film consistent with the ance. The purpose is recognizes that all
to my fields of aesthetics and not to generate a social interactionsdis-
students,because it art criticism, which product; the play improvisational
helps to dispel some have also tended to performanceis the elements, then
common myths about focus more on product.5In contrast,in everyday activities
artists-that artworksthan on the product creativity, the such as
inspirationalways creative process. artist has an unlimited conversationbecome
precedes execution, Unlike product period of time to relevant to aesthetics,
that artistsnever edit creativity-which contemplate,edit, and as both Dewey and
their work, that involves a long period revise the work. This Collingwood claimed.
everythingthat is of creative work creative process, which Creativityin
paintedis released to leading up to the may be largely invisible interactionaldomains,
the world. creative product-in to the public, results in in-cluding teaching,
Perhapsthese myths improvisationalcreati a cre-ative parenting, and
arise from our vity, the process is the productthatis mentoring, is
tendency to focus on product.For example, thendisplayedto the recognized to be
the products of a small-groupjazz audience importantto our lives
creativity-the finished ensemble (see figure 1).6 and our culture.Yet in
paintings, collaboratesonstage Improvisationalperf part because it does not
sculptures,and spon-taneously to ormancegenres generate a
musical scores create the include both musical product,these
thatcriticsreview, that performance.The per- interaction, such as improvisationalinteract
are left for formance that results small-group jazz, and ionsare resistantto
futuregenerationsto emerges from the most types of verbal aesthetic analysis.
analyze and musical interaction,from Like psychology and
interpret.This film interactionsamongmu loosely aesthetics, many
gives us a rare ltiplebandmembers;th structuredconversatio
ere is no directorto per-
opportunity to view, nto moreritualized
instead, the guide the performancegenres.
improvisationalproces performance,and no Thus
s of creativity-the real, script for the improvisationalinter-
lived experienceof the musicians to follow. actioncan be
artist, interactingand And in im- mediatedby
improvisingin his bothlinguisticandmu-
studio. sical symbols. In
Psychologists who improvisationalperfor
study creativityhave mance,a collective
like- creativeprocessconstit
wise focused on utesthe creative
product creativity, product:an
creative do- ephemeralpublic
mains in which performance.
productsare created Because
over time, with improvisationalcreativi
unlimited ty is ephem-eral, and
opportunitiesfor does not generatea
revision by the permanentproduct, it
Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 151
 dialogues.'0When I improvisation.By
formance-oriented began my study of focusing my discus- I will begin by
fields have neglected creativityduringimpro sion on describingimprovisati
im-provisation, visa-tion, I was improvisation,I will onalthe-ater
including folkloristics, surprisedto discover a bring out aspects of performance,and I
ethnomusi-cology, complete ab-sence of both theorists that will identify five
and musicology.The research on have been neglected impor-
few treatmentsthat performancecreativity in most analyses. Of tantcharacteristicsof
exist have been -neither improvisation course, there is a lot improvisationThen,. I
ethnographic nor scripted theater in both theo-rists that will focus on each of
descriptions of had been studiedby I will not be these five
musicalandverbalperf psychologists.So I mentioning-this is of characteristicsin turn,
ormancegenres.In expandedmy search to ne-cessity a selective and for each, argue
music, in addition to a other disciplines, reading.But I believe that both Dewey's
recent focus on jazz,7 looking for theoreti-cal thatthis focus on and Col-lingwood's
European models that might help improvisationcomes
theories emphasize
andAmericanwritersh me to understand the close to revealing the
exactly that as-pect of
ave writtenwidely on process of essence of both men's
the aesthetic
the Indian raga, the groupimprovisationIn. theories, and in any
experience. The focus
Javanese gamelan, the a rangeof theoretical case does not
on
Arabic and Turkish articles, I have drawn misrepresenteither.
improvisationreveals
maqam, the Iranian on semiotics, many
dastgah, and group folkloristics,sociolingui similaritiesbetween
African stics,anddiscourseanal these very
drumming.Studies of y-sis.ll Because of my differentphilosophers
verbal im- focus on discourse, ;their theories unite
provisationare when I began to study on all five
primarilyfound in the the aesthetics characteristicsAnd.
branchof literature,I was by applying each
linguisticanthropolog drawnto theory to the concrete
ycalled the theoriesthatemphasize case of improvisa-
ethnographyof the communica-tive, tional theater, we will
speaking.8 These interactional see where each theory
researchers focus on properties of art- could benefitfrom
public verbal primarily those of elaboration,and
performancein a John Dewey and R. G. suggest some
varietyof Collingwood. Most propertiesof an
cultures;most of these aestheticianshave the aesthetictheory that
performancegenres same implicit bias as
would ade-quately
incorporateimprov- psychologistswho
addressimprovisation
isationalelements.9 studycreativity:they
alcreativity.
In this paper,I will focus on
There is no extant
draw on several culturallyvaluedartfor
evidence that Dewey
empirical studies of ms-the high artslike
read
group verbal ab-stractpaintingor
Collingwood'swork,or
improvisation,includin orchestralcomposition-
vice versa.
g to the almost complete
However,the exchange
improvisationaltheater neglect of between Croce and
actors, ritualverbal performance. Dewey in the late
per-formance in a I will argue here 1940s (in the pages of
range of that at the core of this journal)seems to
cultures,everyday both Dewey's and sug-gest a connection,
small Collingwood's since Collingwood's
talk,andchildren'sfant theories is a theory of theory is often
asyplay art as associated with
Croce.'2 But this holding an
debate largelyhas to imaginarysteering
do with wheel)
whetherDewey's (2) (Actor B walks to
theoryis an idealist A, stands next to
theory-rather than a him, fishes in
pragmatist one-and pocket for
whether Croce has something)
correctly under-stood (3) A: On or off?
Dewey. By focusing (4) B: I'm getting on,
on improvisationand sir (continues
communication,my fishing in his
approachin the pocket)
following leads me
down a different path
from the tradi-tional
Croce-Dewey
comparison.

II

In
improvisationaltheater
,an ensemble of actors
creates a scene
onstage, withoutany
prearranged
dialogue,with no
characterassignments,
and no plot outline.
Everything about the
performance is
created collectively by
the actors, onstage, in
front of the audience.
The following brief
tran-scriptof the first
thirtyseconds of an
improvised
theatersketch, which
lasted a total of about
five minutes,helps to
demonstratethe
collective and
contingentaspects of
improvisation.
Four actors
stand at the back of
the stage. Actor A
begins the scene.

(1) (ActorA walks to

centerstage, pulls
up a chairand sits
down, miming the
action of drivingby
152 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism

(5) A: In or out? Of course, each actor's turn will suggest

(6) B: I'm getting in! I'm getting in! addi-tional details or plot twists; the
(7) A: Did I see you tryin' to get in the back door a dramaticframeis always changing, emerging
couple of stops back? from the acts of all actors.
(8) B: Uh ... An improvised scene is emergent,in both the
classic coinageof the nineteenth-centuryphiloso-
Actor A, taking the first turn, is able to act pher GeorgeHenry Lewes, and in the contempo-
without creative constraints.His initial nonver-bal rary sense associated with connectionism and
act is to sit in a chair and mime the act of holding a distributedcognition.'3Lewes's conceptof "emer-
steeringwheel. This suggests thathe is the driver gence" was widely discussedin the 1920s,largely by
and is sitting in a vehicle. However, this initial evolutionarybiologists but also by the prag-
suggestion leaves many possible op-tions for Actor matists.In a seriesof lecturesat Berkeleyin 1930, G.
B in turn (2). For example, B could have pulled up H. Mead elaborateda pragmatisttheory of
a second chairand sat down next to the emergence:"Theemergentwhen it appearsis al-
"driver,"and she would have become a ways found to follow from the past, but before it
passengerin a car.A's initial act does not indi-cate appears,it does not, by definition, follow from the
whetherthe vehicle is moving or not; it does not past."'4Mead was commenting on the con-
indicate the type of vehicle; it does not indi-cate tingencyof improvisationalinteraction:although a
the role of his character,nor the relationship with retrospectiveexamination reveals a coherent
any other character. B's act in (2) also leaves many interaction,each social act provides a range of
options open for A in turn (3). In (3), for example, creative options, any one of which could have
A could have addressed B as his friendsearchingfor resultedin a radicallydifferentperformanceThe.
theatertickets.The range of dramaticoptions emergentwas the fundamentalanalyticcategory for
available onstage is practi-cally unlimited:for Mead's philosophy,and the paramountissue for
example, at (2), B could have addressedA as social science. Mead claimed, "It is the task of the
CaptainKirkof Star Trek,initiat-ing a television philosophy of today to bring into congru-ence with
show parody.A's utterancein (3) begins to add each other this universality of deter-mination
more detail to the emerging dra-matic frame. "On which is the text of modern science, and the
or off?" would not be an ap-propriatestatementfor emergenceof the novel."15
the driverof a car. It sug-gests thatA is a
professionaldriverof a bus (but also, note, is III
compatiblewith A driving a plane, boat, or
spaceship).Turn(3) also implies a rela-tionship:B is In this section, I will use five characteristicsof
a paying customerof A. improvisationto focus my comparisonsbetween
A few minutesof examinationof any improv- Dewey andCollingwood.The five are:(i) An em-
isational transcript indicates many plausible, phasis on creative process ratherthan creative
dramaticallycoherent utterancesthat the actors product;(ii) An emphasis on creative processes
could have performedat each turn.A combina- that are problem-findingrather than problem-
torial explosion quickly results in hundredsof solving; (iii) The comparisonof art to everyday
potentialperformances,branchingout from each language use; (iv) The importanceof collabora-
actor's utterance.Improvisationalinteractionis tion, with fellow artists and with the audience;
highly contingent from moment to moment. In (v) The role of the ready-made,or cliche, in art.
spite of this contingency, and the range of op- In the following, I will both introduceand in-
tions available to the actors at each turn, by (8) terpretDewey and Collingwood within this five-
the actorshave establisheda reasonablycomplex characteristicframeworkAlthough.in each case,
drama,a collectively createddramaticframethat they aredevelopinga theoryof all art,and specif-
will guide the subsequentdialogue. They know ically of productcreativity,both base their aes-
thatA is a bus driverand thatB is a potentialpas- thetics-even if only implicitly-on a theory of
senger.A is getting a little impatient,and B may the creative process as improvisation.
be a little shifty, perhapstrying to sneak on the
bus. In the remainderof the sketch, the actors i. Emphasizing creative process over product.
must retain dramaticcoherence with this frame. Those who studythe artshave historicallytended
 and the CreativeProcess 153
Sawyer Improvisation
to focus on art process and resulting paintedpic-ture is not that the visible,
products,ratherthan productwas one of the the work of art.... ostensible productis
on the pro-cesses central themes of [However,]its pro- essentially
Americanpragmatism. duction is somehow
thatgeneratethem. irrelevantto art
Dewey based his aes- necessarily connected
This is truenot only of proper:"A work of
thetic theoryon the with the
art historians and of art may be
distinctionbetween art aestheticactivity,that
psychologists, but completely
prod-uct and work of is, with the creationof
also of createdwhen it has
art: "The productof the
aestheticiansand art art ... is not the work of been createdas a
critics. Some argue imaginativeexperienc
art."19The work of art e which is the work of thing whose only
against a is a psycho-logical place is in the
considerationof art."20Collingwood
process; it is "active also makes a strong artist's mind" (PA,p.
creative process on and experienced. It is 130).
principle; for claim
whatthe productdoes, Collingwood's
example, in its working"(AE,p. theory is not quite
arguingagainstone 162). adequateto the
form of criti-cal Dewey's theory of phenomenonof
intentionalism,Monro art as experience stagedimprovisation,be
eBeardsleyarguedthat lends it-self cause of his insistence
understandingthe naturallyto an that the real work of
creative process extension to the art occurs only in the
"makes no difference performing arts and head of the artist.When
at all," and that he to improvisation. he mentions live
does "not see that this improvisation(in
has any bearingupon In seeing a picture or an passing), he insists that
the value of what [the edifice, there is the same it is only incidentalto
artist]produces."'6 compression from real art:"Whena man
However,a few accumulationin time that makes up a tune, he
influentialartcritics there is in hearingmusic, may and very often
have em- readinga poem or novel, does at the same time
phasizedthatartworks and seeing a hum it or sing it or play
cannotbe dramaenacted.No work it on an instrument.
understoodwith-out of artcan be ... he may do these
considering process. instantaneously things in public, so
Clement Greenberg's perceivedbecausethereis that the tune at its
influential position on thenno opportunityfor very birthbecomes
modern abstractart con-servationand public property....
was that "the avant- increase of tension.... It But all these are
gardeimitates the follows thatthe accessories of the real
processes of separationof rhythm and work....
art"ratherthanimitati symmetry from each The actual making of
ngnature.17The other and the division of the tune is
subjectof the artis the artsinto temporaland somethingthat goes
"thedisciplines spatialis more than on in his head, and
andprocesses of misappliedingenuity.It is nowhere else" (PA, p.
artand based on a prin-ciple 134). In this
literaturethemselves." that is destructive ... of insistence,
'8The processes of art esthetic understanding. Collingwood is mak-
of a given stage in (AE, pp. 182-183) ing the same
history are the errorthat he later
propersubject of art Collingwood also attributesto "in-
for the following made a similar dividualistic
stage. distinction the core of psychology" (see
The distinction his below); in im-
between creative aesthetictheory:"The provisationaltheater,t
he essence of the contrast,a problem-
creative process is solving style involves
social and startingwith a relatively
interactional, and detailed plan for a
cannot be reduced to composition and then
the inspirationor simply painting it;
mental process of any "problem-
single actor. solving"becausethe
In contrast, painterdefines a visual
Dewey's pragmatist problem for herself or
framework leads himself before
him to emphasize starting,with the
action in the world, execution of the
and the painting con-sisting of
practicaleffects of "solving"the problem.
that action, and for
these reasonshe does
not focus on whatis
"inthe head" of the
artist.

ii. Problem-findingand
problem-solving. The
film of
Picassoimprovisingat
his canvasis particu-
larlystriking,becausem
ostof us neversee an
artist in action-we only
see finishedpaintingsin
gal-leries and
museums.But Picassois
not unusual-this
improvisationalstyle,
called problem-finding
by
creativityresearchers,is
used by most success-
ful painters, as the
psychologists Getzels
and
Csikszentmihalyidiscov
ered in a ten-yearstudy
of Master of Fine Arts
students at one of the
country's top art
schools, the School of
the Art Instituteof
Chicago.2'A "problem-
finding"painter is
constantlysearchingfor
her or his visual prob-
lem while painting-
improvisinga
paintingrather
thanexecutingone. In
154 The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism

An improvisationaltheaterperformanceis also, felicitous qualityof a work of art;it saves it

of necessity, a problem-findingprocess-albeit a from being mechanical"(AE, p. 139).
collective one, akin to a brainstormingsession. It is not surprisingthattwo very differentphil-
Forcomparison,considera traditionaltheaterper- osophers would develop a problem-findingthe-
formance,perhapsa play by Shakespeare,where the ory of art in the 1930s, after several decades of
actors start with a script, with memories of past abstract,nonrepresentationalpaintingAs. Clement
performancesby other companies-a long Greenbergobservedof artistsin the MiddleAges,
traditionof Shakespeareantheater.This type of "Precisely because his content was determined
performancewould be at the problem-solvingend in advance [by commission of a patron] ... the
of the spectrum;whereas in improvisation,the artistwas relieved of the necessity to be original
actorshave to createeverything;the dramaticel- and inventive in his 'matter'and could devote all
ements emerge from the dialogue, in a problem- his energy to formal problems."22Perhapsonly in
findingprocessthatis collaborativeandemergent. Greenberg's avant-garde could a problem-finding
The modernpsychologicaldistinctionbetween painter like Picasso become one of the
problem-findingandproblem-solvingis strikingly greatestpainters;before the onset of abstractart,
similarto Collingwood's distinctionbetween art problem-solving artists were almost certainly
and craft. In so many words, Collingwood states more dominant.
that a craftsmanis problem-solving,whereas an Art criticshave debatedthe role of spontaneity in
artistis problem-finding: modern art, in part because of this historical
andculturallocatedness.The abstractexpression-ists
[Craft] involves a distinction between planning and were famous for their supposedly improvi-sational
execution. The result to be obtained is preconceived paintingstyles. HaroldRosenbergcalled them
or thoughtout before being arrivedat. (PA,p. 15) "TheAmericanAction Painters"to describe their
nondeliberateapproachto the canvas-yet Leo
In contrast: Steinberg criticized this term, noting that Kline
and de Kooning made theirpaintingswith
Art as such does not imply the distinction between deliberation,carefully working them towardthe
planningand execution (p. 22).... [The work of art]is appearanceof spontaneity.Steinberg hints that
something made by the artist,but not made ... by car- thereis somethingdistinctlyAmericanaboutthis
rying out a preconceivedplan, nor by way of realizing valorizationof the problem-findingstyle: "Itap-
the means to a preconceivedend. (PA,p. 125) pealed once again to the Americandisdainfor art
conceived as somethingtoo carefullyplotted,too
This kind of "making"that is not craft is cre- cosmetic, too French."23In the 1998 book The
ating. "To create something means to make it non- Culture of Spontaneity, Daniel Belgrad also ex-
technically,but yet consciously and volun- plores and elaboratesthe culturaland historical
tarily"(PA, p. 128). And creation does not have to locatednessof the post-WorldWarII "impulseto
be physical or ostensible: "a work of art may be valorizespontaneousimprovisation."24In this
completely created when it has been created as a era of cultural studies, no one should be
thingwhose only place is in the artist'smind" (PA, surprised that not only our art, but also our
p. 130); although it is hard to imagine Pi-casso's aesthetictheo-ries, areconsistentwith
beach scene emerging without his inter-action with andemergefrombroader culturalvalues.
the paints and the canvas.
Dewey also agrees that real art is problem- iii. Art is like everyday language use. It is im-
finding,andthata problem-solvingapproachwill portantto emphasize that for both Dewey and
not lead to real art,althoughthis is not so central Collingwood, art is like language only in a cer-
to his theory: "A rigid predeterminationof an tain sense. It is like languageas used in everyday
end-product ... leads to the turning out of a me- social settings-the pragmatics, ratherthan the
chanical or academic product"(AE, p. 138). An
syntax, of language. Collingwood, in particular,
artworkwill only be greatif the artistfinds a prob-
lem during the process of creation: "The unex- goes to great lengths to criticize views of lan-
pected turn, something which the artist himself guage that, if anything, became more dominant
does not definitely foresee, is a condition of the in the ensuing decades. Collingwood arguesthat
art is not like the language of the grammarians,
Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 155
 speak from a sation: "the
whom he criticizes for script;our largercollective form with people or the
focusing on the conversationis col- of action that is physical
product, ratherthan lectively created, and constitutedby the environment:"expe-
the activity, of emerges from the fitting together of the rience is the result, the
speaking, and for di- actions of lines of behaviorof the sign, and the reward
viding language into everyonepresent.In separateparticipants." of that interaction of
words and every conversation,we 27 organism and
grammaticalre- ne-gotiateall of When everyday environment
lations. Collingwood thepropertiesof the conversation is which ... is a
also argues that art is dramaticframe-where improvisa-tional, it transformation of
not like the the conversation will shares many interaction into
languageof the logical go, what kind of propertieswith participationand
positivists,whom he conversationwe are Dewey's notion of communication"(AE,
criticizes for analyzing having, what our experience. Dewey's p. 22).28 This is
sentences as proposi- social re-lationshipis, theory of the aes-thetic whereDewey meets
tional statements,and when it will end.26In experiencedependson Collingwood:they
analyzingtheirtruthva fact, improv- his characterization of both sharea
lue. Instead, by isationaltheaterdialog experience as communicationtheory
focusing on language ue can best be improvisationaland of art.Dewey
as activity, understood as a yet struc-tured. Dewey
repeatedly states that
Collingwood focuses special case of defines experience as
communicationis the
on everyday everyday interaction
es-sential propertyof
conversation in social conversation.
art: "Because the
contexts.25 Collingwood
objects of art are
Dewey often presents a
expressive, they
compares aesthetic pragmatist,socially
communicate. I do not
experience to contextualizedtheory
say that
everyday of language as
communicationto
conversation:"Acts of utterance, as gesture,
others is the intentof
social inter-course are as act. His
an artist. But it is the
works of art"(AE, p. presentationprefigures
consequence of his
63). They each are an
work"
interactional,andhave importanttraditionin
the late-twentieth- (AE, p. 104).
a temporaldimension. Collingwood'stheory
Dewey writes, century study of
of artis
"Moliere'scharacterdi language-the analysis
generallyknown as an
d not know he had of languageuse and
"expression"theory of
been talking prose all language function that
art. But I think it is
his life. So men in today includes con-
more accuratelycalled
general are not aware versationanalysis,socio
a
that they have been linguistics,andthe communicationtheory
exer-cising an artas study of language use of art,becausefor
long as they have in culturalcontext. Collingwood,art
engaged in spo-ken These con- properis that
intercoursewith temporaryapproaches art which "produces in
others"(AE, p. 240). were [the audience] ...
Thus the indirectlyinfluenced sensuous-
connection with by American emotional or psychical
improvisation:In pragmatismthroughits experienceswhich,
many ways, everyday social psy-chological when raised from
conversationsare also descendant,symbolic impressionsto ideas by
im-provised. interactionism, which the activity of the
Especially in casual took as its object of spectator'sconsciousne
small talk, we do not study social improvi- ss, are transmuted into
 a total B, p. 270).
imaginativeexperiencei Collingwood and
denticalwith that of the Dewey both make
painter"(PA, p. 308). explicit
This usage of the implications of
"experience"is quite their theories: that all
compatiblewith lan-guage (as they
Dewey's. Both Dewey have defined it) is
and Collingwood point aesthetic. Collingwood
out that emphatically states,
by calling art a "Every utter-ance and
language,they do not every gesturethateach
want us to make the one of us makes is a
mistakeof work of art"(PA,p.
privilegingverbalor 285). And
linguis-tic Collingwood
communicationas any acknowledges that his
kind of ultimate lan- theory of art entails
guage. Dewey that many everyday
arguesthat it is a activities-not only the
mistaketo priv-ilege "high arts"-are
spoken language, and aesthetic. As Alan
to think thatbecause Donagan writes:
art expresses things,
those things can be
trans-latedinto
words."Infact,each
artspeaksan idiom
that conveys what
cannotbe said in
anotherlan-guage and
yet remains the same"
(AF, p. 106). Dewey
writes,"Becauseobject
sof artareexpres-sive,
they are a language.
Rather,they are many
languages" (AE, p.
106). Each art has its
own medium, and
each one is like a
different lan-guage,
with our spoken
language being just
an-other one of the
modes of
communication.
Nonetheless, "Artis
the most universal
form of
language ... it is the
most universal and
freest
form of
communication"(A
156 The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
 fundamentally,like all theremustbe an audience,
"Collingwood'sdefini humor, the actors whose functionis lic and social aspect
tion entails that you assume that the thereforenot a
to his
audience shares a merelyreceptiveone, but
creativity:"Even the
must recognize as
large body of cultural collaborativetoo. The
composition
works of art,on the
knowledge and artiststandsthus in
conceived in the head
one hand,every racy references. In this collabo-
and lively and, there-fore,
sense, the audience rativerelationswith an
contributionto physically private, is
guides their entirecommunity.(PA,p.
conversation ... public in its signifi-
improvisation. 324)
and on the cant content, since it
In a 1968 lecture,
other,every scientific Dewey makes is conceived with
Leo
and philosophi-cal much the same point, reference to execution
Steinbergemphasized
treatise."29And as in a productthat is
the role of the claiming that even
Peter audiencein saying, "I
perceptibleand hence
when an artistis
Ingramrecently ob- suspect that all works belongs to the
alone, there is a pub-
served in this of art or stylistic cycles common
journal, "In are definable by world"(AE,p. 51).
engaging in theirbuilt-inidea of the And Dewey draws on
linguistic activities in spectator."3'Colling- the language
a creative way, we wood makes a fairly metaphorto
are all artists. There extreme statementthat emphasize this point:
is no distinction the audience is not "Language exists only
between the 'artist' only an influence, but when it is listened to
and the should be consideredto as well as spoken....
ordinaryman."30 Even when the artist
be a collaboratorwith
works in solitude ...
the artist: the artist has
iv. The importance of
collaboration. In The workof
to become
improvi- artisticcreationis not a
vicariously the
sationaltheater,collab workperformedin any receiving audience"
orationbetween actors exclusive or complete (AE, p. 106).
is an essential aspect fashion in the mind of the For both Dewey
of the creative personwhom we call the and Collingwood, the
process-no one actor artist.That idea is a artist's creation can
can generate a delusion bred of only be interpretedby
performancealone; individualisticpsychology. referenceto the
in-stead, the actors ... This activity is a communityfor
have to rely on the corporate activity whichhe
group col-lectively to belonging not to any one creates.Collingwood
generatethe scene human being but to a argues that in art
throughdialogue. And community.It is proper,the artist is
a defining feature of performednot only by the playing a specialrole
improvisationalthe- man whom we for his
ater is the individualisticallycall the community:"[Thearti
involvement of the artist,but partlyby all the st]takes it as his
audience the ac-tors otherartistsof whom we business to express
always ask the speak as "in-fluencing" not his own private
audience members to him, where we really emotions ... but the
shout out suggestions mean collaborating with
emotions he shares
to start each scene, with his
him. It is performednot
and many groups audience.... What he
only by this corporate says will be something
pause scenes in the body of artists,but (in the
middle to ask for au- that his audiencesays
case of the arts of throughhis mouth....
dience direction.
perform-ance) by Therewill
More
executants... and ...
thus be something ater. However,
more than mere Collingwood does
communica-tion from acknowledge the
artistto importanceof
audience,there will be collaborationamong a
collab- com-munity of
orationbetween artists,criticizing the
audienceandartist"(P "individualistic theory
A,p. 312). This is why of authorship"and
Collingwood feels even recommending
thatartisticactiv-ity is thatcopyrightlaw be
the propertyof an changed(PA,p. 325),
entirecommunity,not writ-ing, "All
of an artistshave
individualcreator."[T modeledtheirstyle
heartist]undertakeshi uponthat of
s artisticlabor not as a others,used
personaleffort on his subjectsthatothershav
own privatebehalf, e used, and
but as a public labor treatedthem as
on behalf of the othershave
communityto which treatedthem already.
he belongs"(PA,p. A work of art so
315). Dewey also constructedis a work
emphasizes that art is of collab-
a communal process, oration"(PA,p. 318).32
not an individualor
psychological one:
"[Art] is not an
isolated event
confined to the
artistand to a
personhere
andtherewho happens
to enjoy the work. In
the degree in which
art ex-ercises its
office, it is also a
remakingof the ex-
perience of the
community in the
direction of
greaterorderand
unity"(AE, p. 81).
Both Dewey and
Collingwood
emphasize the
collaborationsbetween
the artistand their
audi-ences,
ratherthanthe
collaborationsbetween
art-ists that are the
essence of
improvisationalthe-
Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 157
 Ready-made sare "false art"is based
In even more importantin largelyon the art by borrowingand
improvisationaltheate jazz improvisation. presenceor ab-sence of recombiningcliches
r,collaborationis es- Some of the most cliches or ready- from
sential to the famous jazz mades.These ready- formerly created real
performance-it improvisersrelied on a mades already exist: art: "The dead body ...
defines the genre. large repertoireof stock They were created by of
And unlike the phrases;one of the most real artistsas partof the
rathermore creative improvisersof artproper.But if they aestheticactivitybeco
abstractform of col- all time, arere-used, it mes a repertoryof
laborationdiscussedb CharlieParker,drewon becomesfalse ma-terialsout of
y Dewey a personalreper-toire of art:"artisticactivitydoe which an activity of a
100 motifs, each of s not 'use' a 'ready- differentkind can
andCollingwood,
them between four and madelanguage,'it find means
improvisationalcollab
ten notes in 'creates'languageas it adaptableto its own
orationis undeniablya
length.33Jazz goes along" (PA, p. ends. This
fun-damentalpart of
musicians fre- 275). False art non-aesthetic activity ...
the creative process,
quentlydiscuss an simulates uses means which were
and it can be
internaltension between once the living body
observed and their own
analyzed. of art.... It is not art,
personallydevelopedpat but it simulates
terns-calledlicks-and art"(PA,p. 276). Art
v. The role of the
the need to is false when the
ready-made in
continuallyinnovateat a creatoruses a "ready-
improvisation.
personal level. made'language'which
All improvisersknow
Musicians practice and con-sists of a
thatimprovisation does
performthe same songs
not mean that repertoireof cliches to
repeatedly, and can
anythinggoes- produce states of
improvisation always often express them-
mind in the persons
occurswithina selves more effectively
upon whom these
structure,andall when they have a
cliches are used"
improvisersdraw prede-veloped set of
(PA,p. 276).
on
musical ideas
Dewey is
motifsor cliches-as they

available.However, if
create their novel equallypejorativeabou
this process is
performance Even. in tcliches: "No genuine
carriedtoo far, the
the above theater work has ever been a
improvisa-tional
transcript,at line (8) a repetitionof any-thing
natureof the
dramaticframe that previously
performanceis
constrains the future existed. There are
compromised. Jazz
performance,although, indeed works thattend
musicians are awareof
of course, the frame to be mere
the tension between the
was created by the recombinationsof el-
need to develop ideas in
actors ratherthan ements selected from
advanceand the po-
imposed by a prior works. But they
tential for a
predeterminedplot or are academic-that is
gradualevolution to say,mechanical-
script. And the scene towardpatterned
requires a great deal of ratherthan
rigidity.34 esthetic"(AE,p. 288).
shared cultural
knowledge-the two ForDewey,perceptiono
The role of ready-
actors use well-known f art only occurs when
mades is discussed-
cliches, whether visual the perceiveractively,
pejoratively-by both
(hands on steering aesthet-ically,
Dewey and
wheel) or verbal ("On createsher or his own
Collingwood. experience."Other-
or off?"). Collingwood'scontrastb wise, thereis not
etween "artproper"and
perceptionbut the pigments and 158 with
recognition"(AE, p. brusheswith which he performance.Perfor-
52). Recognition paints them.... [Artists] get rid of the mances cannot be
usually results from become poets or paint- conception of dichotomized into
cliches: "In ers or musicians ... by artisticownership.... "improvi-
recognition we fall living in a society where sational"and
these If an artist may say
back, as upon a "scripted";all
languages are nothing except what
stereo-type, upon improvisersdrawon
current"(PA, pp. he has invented by his
some previously ready-mades-short
316-317). The own sole efforts, it
formed scheme."35 riffs or cliches-as they
problem is that standsto rea-son he
The problem here is create their novel
Collingwood never will be poor in ideas"
that, like performance. Does
improvisation, all art makes clear where (PA,p. 325).
Dewey also the re-peated use of
relies on ready- the line is:
acknowledges that 100 personal riffs
madesof one sort or Whatcounts as using
every period suggest that Charlie
an-other.The language
andculturehas Parker'sperformance
sociologistHowardBec aesthetically,and
conventions,thatthe swere "false art," as
kerpointedout what counts as using
sharedcom- Collingwood implies?
thatsharedconventions too much cliche? Still
munal experience of a If we have to exclude
are always used by later,Collingwood
people is always in the Parker-one of the
artists to aid in seems to say that
work of art: "Every most creative and
communicatingwith artistsshould use
culture has its own talented improvisers
their audience.36 The more ready-
mades,and should be collec-tive of this century-from
creativityresearcherMi art proper, then what
free to borrow from individuality.... this
halyCsikszentmihalyi collective individuality improvisationalperfor
makes much the same other artists:"We
must leaves its indelible mancewould qualify?
point when he imprint upon the art This is an
arguesthat all that is unresolvedtension in
creatorsrely on a produced"(AE,p. 330). both Dewey's and
domain,a And "Thesubject- Collingwood's
sharedbodyof con- matter is charged with aesthetic theories-
ventions, techniques, meanings that issue what is the role of
and historical from inter-course with conventions,cliches,
knowledge, as they a common world. The andready-mades?
createnovel artist in the freest How original is
works.37ThusCollingw expression of his own original enough, and
ood's standardfor responses is under how much can be
artproperis borrowed?A version
weighty objective
unrealisticallyhigh; no of either theory that
compulsions"(AE, p.
one can ever be 100 relied on a black-and-
306).
percentoriginal. whitedistinctionwould
Collingwood's
In fact, be brittle and
distinctionbetween art
Collingwood internallyinconsistent.
proper and false art is
acknowledges this Aesthetic the-ory
essentially a
later, saying thatall needs to acknowledge
distinctionbetween
artistshave to speak that all art relies on
more improvisational art
in a language that and less improvisational ready-mades to some
they learn from the art. False art is less extent; that, in fact,
community:"Themus improvisationalbecaus we should thinkin
i-cian did not invent e it relies on ready- termsof a
his scale or his mades--cliches-as an continuumbetween art
instruments. economic properand false art-
... The painterdid not shortcut.Collingwood' between art that relies
invent the idea of s theory can thus be on no
painting picturesor ex-tended, by analogy conventionswhatsoeve
r,and artthatrelies on The Journalof mance-after all, it does whatsoever;but within
a relatively large Aesthetics and result in a a minute or so, many
number of Art Criticism product.The artisthas parametersare already
conventions. This to interactwith es-tablished.At this
continuum parallels IV
physical point, the actorshave
that in performance- materialsandhas many createda problem for
the continuumfrom By focusing on opportunitiesto revise themselves, and they
fully improvised improvisationalperfor the work, even to have to spend the rest
performance, through mance,we have discardit entirely upon of the scene solving that
partially embellished identified five common completion.A theoryof problem. In fact, in
performance, to themes in the aes-thetic productcreativitywoul most creativegenres,the
highly ritualizedand theoriesof Dewey d have to build onto creativeprocess is a
scriptedperformance. andCollingwood.Essen- the theoryof constantbalance
tially, both improvisation,in this between finding a
philosophershave
direction:To explore if, problem and solving
developedtheories of
and how, this edit- thatproblem,and then
and-revise process finding a new problem
art as improvisation by
changes the nature of during the solving of
focusing on crea-tive
the work-the the last one; Pi-casso's
process, problem-
"experience,"in film is a good example
finding, collaboration,
Dewey's terms. Al- of this constant
and
though the core tension.The theoriesof
communicationAnd. by
creative processes may Dewey andCollingwood
identifyingthe com-
be the same, there are make too sharpa
mon themes of these
sure to be some divisionbetweenthe two,
two philosophers,we
differences. seem-ing to claim thatif
have begun to develop
any degree of
a more ii. Problem-finding planningor pre-
elaboratetheoryof im- versus problem-solving. determinationis
provisationalcreativity, At involved, then it is not
or at least we have the beginning of an real art.
begun to see how such improvisationalscene,
a theory would have to there is no iii. Collaboration. The
look. dramaticframe theories of Dewey and
At the same time,
our textual
comparison leaves us
with several areas
that need elabora-
tion, that are not
sufficiently
addressedby either
philosopher,andthatth
e phenomenonof
improv-
isationalperformance
makes especially
clear.

i. Process versus
product. Despite
these many
similarities,productcr
eativityis not identical
to
improvisationalperfor
Collingwood focus on collaborationbetween
the
Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 159
 teractionalsemiotic just anywhere;it takes
artistand the mechanismsof creativity to know gests some
audience,ratherthan situatedlan-guage use. when an utterance can fruitfulareasfor
collaboration among Once such a theory is appropriatelybe furtherstudy.While
a community of in place, then followed by this single not prevalentin
artists. Of course, perhapsone could word, and we all Westerncultures,cross
both men believe that make an recognize it (by -cultural study
all members of a argumentthatthe na- laughing)when indicatesthatperforma
community are tureof the therehas been a ncegenres employ-ing
artists, and both communicationbetwee particularlycre-ative elements of
make explicit claims n a painterand the usage of the cliche. improvisationare
to this effect-that in museum-goer is the Collingwood's distinc- quite common
trulyperceiving a same as that between tion between art and worldwide.38The
work of art,the improvisationalactors craft cannot be focus in aestheticsand
perceiverbecomesjust and say exactly how it maintained without creativ-ity researchon
as much of an artistas is similar in some resolutionof this issue.
productcreativity is
the creatorof the ways, and differentin The focus on
not surpris-ing, given
others. A sufficient improvisationalperf
work. that our purposes are
communicationtheory ormancesug-
But this aspect of often to under-
the theories is not of art would need to be
standthe historiesof
sufficient to explain capable of making
our own
the constant, these distinctions.
creativegenres,and
spontaneous,immedia to identify and
te communicationthat iv. The role of ready-
mades. Collingwood, encourage creativity
results in the in our own societies.
in par-
collaborative However,aestheticthe
emergenceof an ticular, is overly
simplistic on this oriesthatarere-
improvisationalperfor strictedto product-
manceA. paintermay point. Most jazz
musicians cannot orienteddomainsmay
have an image of the be Eu-rocentric, and
eventual audi-ence imagine the
possibility of never seem to imply that
while she works, but oral cultures are
this is quite different playing a phrase or
somehow less
from having a fellow motif that had ever
creative,or less
actor saying a line been played before-
respectable,or less
thatyou never would that is not the way
deservingof analysis.
have expected, and jazz works. Jazz is
Theoriesthatclaim to
using that line to find heavily motif-
be directed at
new inspirationfor based,but that does
underlyinguniversals
where to go next. not diminish the
in the psy-chological
The problemis creativityof the
and social processesof
thatneitherDewey performers. creativitymust be
norColling-wood has In fact, the most cognizant of all
developed an overused verbal manifestationsof
adequatetheory of cliches can still creativity, including
com-munication. Such requirecreativityin both productsand
a theory would include use. In the early performance.
de-scriptions of how 1990s, a common Both Dewey's
intersubjectivityis cliche was to add the andCollingwood'stheor
achieved through single word iessug-gest that the
communication, how "NOT"aftera psychological and
group behaviors are friend'sutterancethaty social processes
emergentfrom ou thought was
operating in
individualactions, and patentlyfalse. But you
improvisationalperfor
the in-
cannot insert"NOT"
mance and
productcreativitymay leadership. In spite of
be Dewey's strongclaims
morethansuperficially for the aestheticvalue
similarBoth. of
authorswerewritingin everydayexperience,nei
the sametime periodin therpsychologynor aes-
whichtheRussianpsych thetics has had much
ologistVygotsky to say about the
developed his now- creativity of everyday
influentialtheories of life. Many of us have
mind as intuitive no-tions that
internalizedsocial one teachermay be
interaction(althoughVy more creative than
got-sky was not widely another;but how can
availablein English we explain creative
until the 1960s). teach-ing by focusing
Vygotsky'smodel of on products?A view of
thoughtas internal-ized creative teaching as a
interaction39also set of
suggeststhatthe recordedtechniques-
individual artist or prod-
scientist always works
with an internal mental
model of the field and
domain pro-
cesses.40Dewey
andCollingwoodbothar
guethat artistswho do
not internalizesuch a
model arenot likely to
generateproductsjudge
d to be creative.
In additionto its
usefulnessto
aesthetictheory, a focus
on improvisationhelps
us to elaborateon the
claim thateverydaylife
is aesthetic-a claim
made by both Dewey
and Collingwood.
Every-day small talk
is, of course, a group
improvisa-tion,
perhapsaccountingfor
Dewey's many con-
versation metaphors.
We all know that many
everyday settings
involve
improvisationalinter-
action and
creativity,includingteac
hing, collab-orating,
parenting, and
160 The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism

ucts such as curriculum,lesson plans, or weekly "ImprovisationalTheater:An Ethnotheoryof Conversational

goals-is not coincident with our memories of Practice,"in Creativityin Performance,ed. R. Keith Sawyer
creative teachers,or for that mattercreative par- (Greenwich,CT:Ablex, 1997).
2. R. Keith Sawyer, "A DevelopmentalModel of Hetero-
ents, leaders, or managers.A teacher or a man- glossic Improvisationin Children'sFantasyPlay,"Sociolog-ical
ager who sticks to a predeterminedscriptwill be Studiesof Children7 (1995); R. Keith Sawyer,"Creativ-ity as
unableto respondeffectively to the uniqueneeds of Mediated Action: A Comparisonof Improvisational
each situation. Performanceand Product Creativity,"Mind, Culture, and
Activity 2 (1995); R. Keith Sawyer, "The Semiotics of Im-
In 1940 Clement Greenbergwrote that litera-
provisation:The Pragmaticsof Musical and VerbalPerfor-
ture was the "dominantart"of the time, and that mance,"Semiotica 108 (1996).
avant-gardepainting,the "chief victim of litera- 3. The Mysteryof Picasso, 1982, MK2 Diffusion and
ture,"was defined by its "revoltagainstthe dom- Ines Clouzot.
inance of literature"-in practice a turn to for- 4. Two recent volumes provide a good survey of this re-
search:M. A. Runco and R. S. Albert, eds., Theories of Cre-
malismandaway frompropositionalcontent.41In ativity (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990);
Greenberg'sanalysis, the avant-gardeturnedto R. J. Sternberg,ed., The Nature of Creativity(New
music as its model, viewing music as a purely York:Cam-bridge University Press, 1988).
formal artthat would allow an escape from liter- 5. However, several theater groups use improvisational
ature.If Greenbergwere writingtoday,he would processes in rehearsalas a way of generatingscript ideas-
including Chicago's Second City, and the British film
perhaps observe that performanceis the domi-nant direc-tor Mike Leigh.
art of our time. The visual arts have been 6. Figure 1 first appearedin Sawyer, "Creativityas
heavilyinfluencedby the creativepotentialof per- Medi-ated Action."
formance art, resulting in installation-specific 7. Paul Berliner,Thinkingin Jazz: The InfiniteArt of
Im-provisation (University of Chicago Press, 1994);
pieces, or multimediaworks thatintegratevideo Ingrid Monson, Saying Something:Jazz
images or tapedsounds.In fact, the critic Michael Improvisationand Interac-tion (Universityof Chicago
Kimmelman wrote in 1998, "Art today often seems Press, 1996); Sawyer, "Improvi-sationalCreativity."
to aspire to the conditions of theaterand 8. R. Bauman and J. Sherzer, eds., Explorations in the
Ethnographyof Speaking(New York:CambridgeUniversity
film."42 Press, 1974); D. Hymes, "TheEthnographyof Speaking,"in
Could these two books by Dewey andColling- Anthropologyand Human Behavior, ed. T. Gladwin and W.
wood-published fouryears apartin the 1930s-be C. Sturtevant(Washington:AnthropologicalSociety of
partlyresponsiblefor the postwar"cultureof Washington,1962).
9. Despite the recent availability of these ethnographies,
spontaneity"-Black Mountain and beat poets, most studies of improvisationalperformancehave retaineda
bebop musicians, abstractexpressionists, mod- "compositional"approachto improvisedperformances,often
ern dance, installationart,the emphasison com- using techniquesdeveloped for the analysis of notatedscores
position as process in poetry and prose writing? or scripts (see note 4 above).
10. Sawyer,"ImprovisationalTheater";Sawyer,"TheSemi-
In fact, the very existence of this special issue is
otics of Improvisation";R. Keith Sawyer, CreatingConver-
evidence that performancemay be taking over sations: Improvisationin EverydayDiscourse (Cresskill,NJ:
the role of "dominantart"that Greenbergonce HamptonPress, Inc., forthcoming);Sawyer, PretendPlay as
assigned to literature,and I view this as a wel- Improvisation.
come development,because it suggests that aes- 11. Although my presentationhere focuses on verbal
im-provisation,I believe that there are
thetics will continue to focus on process in addi- interestingparallelswith musical improvisation, which I
tion to product. discuss in Sawyer, "The Semiotics of Improvisation."
12. Benedetto Croce, "On the Aesthetics of Dewey," The
R. KEITH SAWYER Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism6 (1948): 203-207;
John Dewey, "A Comment on the Foregoing Criticisms,"
Department of Education
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 6 (1948): 207-
Washington University 209. Also see Stephen C. Pepper,"Some Questions on
St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899 Dewey's Esthetics,"in The Philosophy of John Dewey, ed.
Paul ArthurSchilpp (NorthwesternUniversity Press, 1939);
INTERNET: [email protected] George H. Douglas, "A Reconsideration of the Dewey-Croce
Exchange," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti-cism 28
1. R. Keith Sawyer,"ImprovisationalCreativity:An Analy- (1970): 497-504; Thomas M. Alexander, John Dewey's
sis of Jazz Performance,"Creativity Research Journal 5 Theory of Art, Experience,and Nature: The Hori-zons of
(1992): 253-263; R. Keith Sawyer, PretendPlay as Improvi- Feeling (SUNY Press, 1987).
sation: Conversationin the Preschool Classroom(Norwood, 13. George HenryLewes, Problemsof
NJ: LawrenceEribaumAssociates, 1997); R. Keith Sawyer,
Lifeand Mind,vol. II (London:Trubner&
Company, 1875), p. 412 passim.
Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 161
 Creative Vision(New ive and
York:Wiley, 1976). Method(EnglewoodCliffs,
14. G. H. Mead, The for Dewey, language and
22. Greenberg,"Avant- NJ: Prentice-Hall,Inc.,
Philosophy of the music both sharedthe
Gardeand 1969), p. 70.
Present, ed. Arthur structureof experience, and
Kitsch,"p. 18. 28. Although this paper
E. Murphy(University of music, because of the
23. Leo Steinberg, focuses on verbal
Chicago Press, 1932), improvisation, obvious temporaldi-
Other Criteria:
p. 2. mension, was of all the arts
Confrontationswith
15. Ibid., p. 14. the most representativeof
Twentieth-CenturyArt
16. Monroe C. his aesthetictheory(AE,p.
(New
Beardsley, "On the 184). AlthoughDewey does
York:OxfordUniversity
Creationof Art," The not men-tion
Press, 1972), p. 62.
Journal of Aesthetics and improvisationexplicitly
24. Daniel Belgrad, The
Art Criticism23 (1965): (except
Cultureof
309. Spontaneity:Improvi- parentheticallycompar-ing
17. Clement sationand theArtsin "jazzed music" to movies
Greenberg, "Avant- PostwarAmerica(University and comic strips, p. 5), his
Gardeand Kitsch," in of Chicago metaphoric descriptions of
Perceptions and Press,1998).Belgradinclude experience, often
Judgments, 1939-1944, sin thisaestheticthe emphasizing rhythm,would
vol. 1 of The Col-lected BlackMoun-tain and beat seem quite familiartojazz
Essays and Criticism poets, bebop musicians.For ex-ample,
(University of Chicago musicians,abstractexpressio "all interactions... in the
Press, 1986), p. 17, nists, and moderndance. whirling flux of change are
originallypublishedin 25. Collingwood's "artas rhythms.Thereis ebb
PartisanReview6 (1939): andflow ...
language"discussion has
34-49. orderedchange"(AE,p. 16).
not re-ceived much
18. Ibid., p. 8. 29. Alan Donagan,
attention,even in the
19. John Dewey, Art as recentdefense of Colling- TheLaterPhilosophyofR.
Experience (New G. Colling-wood, (New
wood by Aaron Ridley in
York:Perigree Books, York: Oxford University
this journal ("Not Ideal:
1934), p. 214. This work Press, 1962), p. 130. On
Colling-wood's Expression
will be referredto as AE page 131, Donagan writes
Theory,"The Journal of
with page numbersin the that Collingwood did not
Aesthetics and Art
text for all ac-cept that all discourse
subsequentcitations. Criticism 55 [1997]: 263-
272). But see was art until after he wrote
20. R. G. Collingwood, the earlier Essay on
The Principles of Art (New GarryHagberg,
Art as Language (Cornell Philosophical Method. This
York: Oxford was always Croce's point,
UniversityPress, 1938), p. UniversityPress, 1995). As a
lan-guage researcher,I was but Collingwood had
305. This work will be re- earlierrejectedit.
ferred to as PA with page impressedby Collingwood's
critique of his 30. Peter G.
numbersin the text for all Ingram,"Art,Language,a
subse-quent citations. Such contemporaries-the
grammarians(PA,pp. 254- nd Communityin
interpretationsare Collingwood's Principles
reminiscent of 259) and the logicians (PA,
pp. 259-268). Collingwood's of Art," The Journal of
Marx'sdescriptionsof the Aesthetics and Art
relationshipsbetween labor argu-ments prefigure the
critiques of Criticism27 (1978): 56.
activ-ity and the 31. Steinberg,Other
commodity:the commodity Chomskianlinguistics that
emerged in the 1960s and Criteria,p. 81
is "congealedlabor" or 32. Although note,
"frozen activity." Karl 1970s in anthropologyand
soci-olinguistics. And the Collingwood seems to
Marx, The Marx-Engels contradicthim-self here:
Reader (New York:Norton, theory of artpresentedin
Book III dis-plays earlierhe says that the
1978), p. 307. In the same work is done "in the head"
way, the art product is remarkableoverlap with
contemporarysociocultural of the artist.
congealed aesthetic activity. 33. T. Owens, Charlie
Dewey's early neo- theories of
creativitythatemerged in Parker: Techniquesof
Hegelianismis well Improvisa-tion. (Ph.D. diss.,
known, and the Croce- psychology only in the
1980s. University of California,
Collingwoodaes-thetic Los Angeles, 1974). Selected
also draws on this motifs from Owens's
tradition. 26. Sawyer, Creating
Conversations. dissertationappearin
21. Jacob W. Getzels several entries in The New
and Mihaly 27. HerbertBlumer,Symb
olicInteractionism:Perspect Grove Dictionary of Jazz
Csikszentmihalyi,The
(Lon-don: Macmillan, st 9, 1998, sec-tion 2, pp.
1988), including the entries 1, 32.
for "Improvi-sation"and
for "Parker,Charlie."
34. Sawyer,
"ImprovisationalCr
eativity."
35. Greenberg'sclassic
distinction between avant-
garde and kitsch stands or
falls on the same point:
kitsch uses as
"rawmaterial"the
"fullymaturedculturaltradit
ion,"borrow-ing "devices,
tricks, stratagems, rules of
thumb, themes"
(Greenberg,"Avant-
Gardeand Kitsch,"p. 12).
36. HowardBecker, Art
Worlds(University of
California Press, 1982).
37. MihalyCsikszentmih
alyi,"Society,Culture,andPe
rson: A SystemsView of
Creativity,"in TheNatureof
Creativity,ed. Sternberg.
38. Sawyer, "The
Semiotics of
Improvisation."
39. Lev S. Vygotsky,Mind
in Society, trans.Alex
Kozulin
(HarvardUniversityPress,
1978); Lev S. Vygotsky,
Thought and Language, ed.
Michael Cole et al., trans.E.
Hanfmann and G.
Vakar(1934; reprint,MIT
Press, 1986).
40. Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyiand R.
Keith Sawyer, "Cre-ative
Insight:The Social
Dimension of a
SolitaryMoment,"
in The Natureof
Insight,ed. R. J.
Sternbergand J. E.
David-son (MIT Press,
1995).
41. Clement
Greenberg,"Towardsa
Newer Laocoon," in
Perceptions and
Judgments, 1939-1944, p.
28; originally publishedin
Partisan Review7 (1940):
296-310.
42. Michael
Kimmelman,
"InstallationArt Moves
In, Moves On," New
YorkTimes,Sunday,Augu