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
Accessed: 23/07/2008 16:41

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
http://www.jstor.org
 R. KEITH SAWYER

Improvisationand the CreativeProcess:

Dewey, Collingwood, and the Aesthetics
of Spontaneity
Improvisationalperformancehas been neglected
by many fields that study creativityand the arts,
including both philosophy and psychology. Psy-
chologists, for example, have focused on prod-
uct creativity:activities that result in objective,
ostensible products-paintings, sculptures,mu-
sical scores which remainafterthe creativeact is
complete.Productcreativitygenerallyinvolves a
long period of creative work leading up to the
creative product.In contrast,in improvisational
performance,the creativeprocess is the product;
the audience is watching the creative process as
it occurs.
My primaryresearchinterestis everydaycon-
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
empiricalresearchhas focused on three types of
improvised discourse: improvisational theater,
children's fantasy play, and everyday conversa-
tion.' In my theoreticalwritings, I use these im-
provisationalphenomenato addressseveralissues
in contemporarypsychology and social theory-
the tension between structureand practice, is-
sues of textuality,discourse,structureversusplay,
and heteroglossia.2Thus my theoreticalframe-
work has evolved from the empiricallygrounded
attemptto identify and characterizespecific in-
teractionalmechanisms that are used to create a
collective improvisationalperformance.
In this paper,I will focus on some philosophical
implicationsof my evolving analysesof improvi-
sationalgroup performanceIn. this discussion, I will
make explicit the relationshipsbetween im-
provisationalperformanceand product-oriented
arts such as painting,writing,and music compo-
sition, by drawing on Dewey's model of "artas
experience"and Collingwood's model of "artas
language."Improvisationalperformanceis rele-
vant to the empiricalstudy of all creative genres
for two centralreasons.First,the creativeprocess
that goes on in the mind of a creatoris generally
inaccessible to the researcher,in partbecause it
occursin fits andstarts,overlong timeperiods.But
an improvisedperformanceis createdin the mo-
ment, onstage, and can easily be observedby the
researcher.Second, many improvisationalper-
formancegenresare fundamentallycollaborative.
Observingthis collaborationonstageis relatively
straightforward,comparedto the difficulties of
observing the many forms of collaborationthat
contributeto the generationof a work of art.
In his studio,Picasso is paintingfree-form,with-
out preconceivedimage or composition;he is ex-
perimentingwith colors, forms, and moods. He
startswith a figure of a reclining nude-but then
loses interest, and the curve of the woman's leg
reminds him of a matador's leg as he flies
through the air after being gored by a bull-so he
paints over the nude and creates an image of a
bull and matador.But this leads him to yet an-
otheridea;he paintsover the bullfightimage and
begins work on a Mediterraneanharbor-with
water-skier,bathersin bikinis, and a picturesque
hilltop village.
The free-forminspirationcontinues.Five hours
later,Picasso stops and declaresthathe will have to
discardthe canvas-it has not worked.But the time
was not wasted-he has discovered some new ideas,
ideas that have emerged from his in-teractionwith
the canvas, ideas thathe can use in his next
painting. Picasso says, "Now that I begin to see
where I'm going with it, I'll take a new canvas and
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
(5) A: In or out?
(6) B: I'm getting in! I'm getting in!
(7) A: Did I see you tryin' to get in the back door a
couple of stops back?
(8) B: Uh ...
Actor A, taking the first turn, is able to act
without creative constraints.His initial nonver-bal
act is to sit in a chair and mime the act of holding a
steeringwheel. This suggests thathe is the driver
and is sitting in a vehicle. However, this initial
suggestion leaves many possible op-tions for Actor
B in turn (2). For example, B could have pulled up
a second chairand sat down next to the
"driver,"and she would have become a
passengerin a car.A's initial act does not indi-cate
whetherthe vehicle is moving or not; it does not
indicate the type of vehicle; it does not indi-cate
the role of his character,nor the relationship with
any other character. B's act in (2) also leaves many
options open for A in turn (3). In (3), for example,
A could have addressed B as his friendsearchingfor
theatertickets.The range of dramaticoptions
available onstage is practi-cally unlimited:for
example, at (2), B could have addressedA as
CaptainKirkof Star Trek,initiat-ing a television
show parody.A's utterancein (3) begins to add
more detail to the emerging dra-matic frame. "On
or off?" would not be an ap-propriatestatementfor
the driverof a car. It sug-gests thatA is a
professionaldriverof a bus (but also, note, is
compatiblewith A driving a plane, boat, or
spaceship).Turn(3) also implies a rela-tionship:B is
a paying customerof A.
A few minutesof examinationof any improv-
isational transcript indicates many plausible,
dramaticallycoherent utterancesthat the actors
could have performedat each turn.A combina-
torial explosion quickly results in hundredsof
potentialperformances,branchingout from each
actor's utterance.Improvisationalinteractionis
highly contingent from moment to moment. In
spite of this contingency, and the range of op-
tions available to the actors at each turn, by (8)
the actorshave establisheda reasonablycomplex
drama,a collectively createddramaticframethat
will guide the subsequentdialogue. They know
thatA is a bus driverand thatB is a potentialpas-
senger.A is getting a little impatient,and B may
be a little shifty, perhapstrying to sneak on the
bus. In the remainderof the sketch, the actors
must retain dramaticcoherence with this frame.
The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism
Of course, each actor's turn will suggest
addi-tional details or plot twists; the
dramaticframeis always changing, emerging
from the acts of all actors.
An improvised scene is emergent,in both the
classic coinageof the nineteenth-centuryphiloso-
pher GeorgeHenry Lewes, and in the contempo-
rary sense associated with connectionism and
distributedcognition.'3Lewes's conceptof "emer-
gence" was widely discussedin the 1920s,largely by
evolutionarybiologists but also by the prag-
matists.In a seriesof lecturesat Berkeleyin 1930, G.
H. Mead elaborateda pragmatisttheory of
emergence:"Theemergentwhen it appearsis al-
ways found to follow from the past, but before it
appears,it does not, by definition, follow from the
past."'4Mead was commenting on the con-
tingencyof improvisationalinteraction:although a
retrospectiveexamination reveals a coherent
interaction,each social act provides a range of
creative options, any one of which could have
resultedin a radicallydifferentperformanceThe.
emergentwas the fundamentalanalyticcategory for
Mead's philosophy,and the paramountissue for
social science. Mead claimed, "It is the task of the
philosophy of today to bring into congru-ence with
each other this universality of deter-mination
which is the text of modern science, and the
emergenceof the novel."15
III
In this section, I will use five characteristicsof
improvisationto focus my comparisonsbetween
Dewey andCollingwood.The five are:(i) An em-
phasis on creative process ratherthan creative
product;(ii) An emphasis on creative processes
that are problem-findingrather than problem-
solving; (iii) The comparisonof art to everyday
language use; (iv) The importanceof collabora-
tion, with fellow artists and with the audience;
(v) The role of the ready-made,or cliche, in art.
In the following, I will both introduceand in-
terpretDewey and Collingwood within this five-
characteristicframeworkAlthough.in each case,
they aredevelopinga theoryof all art,and specif-
ically of productcreativity,both base their aes-
thetics-even if only implicitly-on a theory of
the creative process as improvisation.
i. Emphasizing creative process over product.
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
An improvisationaltheaterperformanceis also,
of necessity, a problem-findingprocess-albeit a
collective one, akin to a brainstormingsession.
Forcomparison,considera traditionaltheaterper-
formance,perhapsa play by Shakespeare,where the
actors start with a script, with memories of past
performancesby other companies-a long
traditionof Shakespeareantheater.This type of
performancewould be at the problem-solvingend
of the spectrum;whereas in improvisation,the
actorshave to createeverything;the dramaticel-
ements emerge from the dialogue, in a problem-
findingprocessthatis collaborativeandemergent.
The modernpsychologicaldistinctionbetween
problem-findingandproblem-solvingis strikingly
similarto Collingwood's distinctionbetween art
and craft. In so many words, Collingwood states
that a craftsmanis problem-solving,whereas an
artistis problem-finding:
[Craft] involves a distinction between planning and
execution. The result to be obtained is preconceived
or thoughtout before being arrivedat. (PA,p. 15)
In contrast:
Art as such does not imply the distinction between
planningand execution (p. 22).... [The work of art]is
something made by the artist,but not made ... by car-
rying out a preconceivedplan, nor by way of realizing
the means to a preconceivedend. (PA,p. 125)
This kind of "making"that is not craft is cre-
ating. "To create something means to make it non-
technically,but yet consciously and volun-
tarily"(PA, p. 128). And creation does not have to
be physical or ostensible: "a work of art may be
completely created when it has been created as a
thingwhose only place is in the artist'smind" (PA,
p. 130); although it is hard to imagine Pi-casso's
beach scene emerging without his inter-action with
the paints and the canvas.
Dewey also agrees that real art is problem-
finding,andthata problem-solvingapproachwill
not lead to real art,althoughthis is not so central
to his theory: "A rigid predeterminationof an
end-product ... leads to the turning out of a me-
chanical or academic product"(AE, p. 138). An
artworkwill only be greatif the artistfinds a prob-
lem during the process of creation: "The unex-
pected turn, something which the artist himself
does not definitely foresee, is a condition of the
The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
felicitous qualityof a work of art;it saves it
from being mechanical"(AE, p. 139).
It is not surprisingthattwo very differentphil-
osophers would develop a problem-findingthe-
ory of art in the 1930s, after several decades of
abstract,nonrepresentationalpaintingAs. Clement
Greenbergobservedof artistsin the MiddleAges,
"Precisely because his content was determined
in advance [by commission of a patron] ... the
artistwas relieved of the necessity to be original
and inventive in his 'matter'and could devote all
his energy to formal problems."22Perhapsonly in
Greenberg's avant-garde could a problem-finding
painter like Picasso become one of the
greatestpainters;before the onset of abstractart,
problem-solving artists were almost certainly
more dominant.
Art criticshave debatedthe role of spontaneity in
modern art, in part because of this historical
andculturallocatedness.The abstractexpression-ists
were famous for their supposedly improvi-sational
paintingstyles. HaroldRosenbergcalled them
"TheAmericanAction Painters"to describe their
nondeliberateapproachto the canvas-yet Leo
Steinberg criticized this term, noting that Kline
and de Kooning made theirpaintingswith
deliberation,carefully working them towardthe
appearanceof spontaneity.Steinberg hints that
thereis somethingdistinctlyAmericanaboutthis
valorizationof the problem-findingstyle: "Itap-
pealed once again to the Americandisdainfor art
conceived as somethingtoo carefullyplotted,too
cosmetic, too French."23In the 1998 book The
Culture of Spontaneity, Daniel Belgrad also ex-
plores and elaboratesthe culturaland historical
locatednessof the post-WorldWarII "impulseto
valorizespontaneousimprovisation."24In this
era of cultural studies, no one should be
surprised that not only our art, but also our
aesthetictheo-ries, areconsistentwith
andemergefrombroader culturalvalues.
iii. Art is like everyday language use. It is im-
portantto emphasize that for both Dewey and
Collingwood, art is like language only in a cer-
tain sense. It is like languageas used in everyday
social settings-the pragmatics, ratherthan the
syntax, of language. Collingwood, in particular,
goes to great lengths to criticize views of lan-
guage that, if anything, became more dominant
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
whom he criticizes for script;our
focusing on the conversationis col-
product, ratherthan lectively created, and
the activity, of emerges from the
speaking, and for di- actions of
viding language into everyonepresent.In
words and every conversation,we
grammaticalre- ne-gotiateall of
lations. Collingwood thepropertiesof the
also argues that art is dramaticframe-where
not like the the conversation will
languageof the logical go, what kind of
positivists,whom he conversationwe are
criticizes for analyzing having, what our
sentences as proposi- social re-lationshipis,
tional statements,and when it will end.26In
analyzingtheirtruthva fact, improv-
lue. Instead, by isationaltheaterdialog
focusing on language ue can best be
as activity, understood as a
Collingwood focuses special case of
on everyday everyday
conversation in social conversation.
contexts.25 Collingwood
Dewey often presents a
compares aesthetic pragmatist,socially
experience to contextualizedtheory
everyday of language as
conversation:"Acts of utterance, as gesture,
social inter-course are as act. His
works of art"(AE, p. presentationprefigures
63). They each are an
interactional,andhave importanttraditionin
the late-twentieth-
a temporaldimension.
Dewey writes, century study of
"Moliere'scharacterdi language-the analysis
d not know he had of languageuse and
been talking prose all language function that
his life. So men in today includes con-
general are not aware versationanalysis,socio
that they have been linguistics,andthe
exer-cising an artas study of language use
long as they have in culturalcontext.
engaged in spo-ken These con-
intercoursewith temporaryapproaches
others"(AE, p. 240). were
Thus the indirectlyinfluenced
connection with by American
improvisation:In pragmatismthroughits
many ways, everyday social psy-chological
conversationsare also descendant,symbolic
im-provised. interactionism, which
Especially in casual took as its object of
small talk, we do not study social improvi-
sation: "the
largercollective form with people or the
of action that is physical
constitutedby the environment:"expe-
fitting together of the rience is the result, the
lines of behaviorof the sign, and the reward
separateparticipants." of that interaction of
27 organism and
When everyday environment
conversation is which ... is a
improvisa-tional, it transformation of
shares many interaction into
propertieswith participationand
Dewey's notion of communication"(AE,
experience. Dewey's p. 22).28 This is
theory of the aes-thetic whereDewey meets
experiencedependson Collingwood:they
his characterization of both sharea
experience as communicationtheory
improvisationaland of art.Dewey
yet struc-tured. Dewey
repeatedly states that
defines experience as
communicationis the
interaction
es-sential propertyof
art: "Because the
objects of art are
expressive, they
communicate. I do not
say that
communicationto
others is the intentof
an artist. But it is the
consequence of his
work"
(AE, p. 104).
Collingwood'stheory
of artis
generallyknown as an
"expression"theory of
art. But I think it is
more accuratelycalled
a
communicationtheory
of art,becausefor
Collingwood,art
properis that
art which "produces in
[the audience] ...
sensuous-
emotional or psychical
experienceswhich,
when raised from
impressionsto ideas by
the activity of the
spectator'sconsciousne
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
"Collingwood'sdefini humor, the actors
tion entails that you assume that the
audience shares a
must recognize as
large body of cultural
works of art,on the
knowledge and
one hand,every racy references. In this
and lively
sense, the audience
contributionto
guides their
conversation ...
improvisation.
and on the
In a 1968 lecture,
other,every scientific
Leo
and philosophi-cal
Steinbergemphasized
treatise."29And as
the role of the
Peter audiencein saying, "I
Ingramrecently ob- suspect that all works
served in this of art or stylistic cycles
journal, "In are definable by
engaging in theirbuilt-inidea of the
linguistic activities in spectator."3'Colling-
a creative way, we wood makes a fairly
are all artists. There extreme statementthat
is no distinction the audience is not
between the 'artist' only an influence, but
and the should be consideredto
ordinaryman."30
be a collaboratorwith
the artist:
iv. The importance of
collaboration. In The workof
improvi- artisticcreationis not a
sationaltheater,collab workperformedin any
orationbetween actors exclusive or complete
is an essential aspect fashion in the mind of the
of the creative personwhom we call the
process-no one actor artist.That idea is a
can generate a delusion bred of
performancealone; individualisticpsychology.
in-stead, the actors ... This activity is a
have to rely on the corporate activity
group col-lectively to belonging not to any one
generatethe scene human being but to a
throughdialogue. And community.It is
a defining feature of performednot only by the
improvisationalthe- man whom we
ater is the individualisticallycall the
involvement of the artist,but partlyby all the
audience the ac-tors otherartistsof whom we
always ask the speak as "in-fluencing"
audience members to him, where we really
shout out suggestions mean collaborating with
to start each scene,
him. It is performednot
and many groups
only by this corporate
pause scenes in the body of artists,but (in the
middle to ask for au-
case of the arts of
dience direction.
perform-ance) by
More
executants... and ...
theremustbe an audience,
whose functionis lic and social aspect
thereforenot a
to his
merelyreceptiveone, but
creativity:"Even the
collaborativetoo. The
composition
artiststandsthus in
conceived in the head
collabo-
and, there-fore,
rativerelationswith an
physically private, is
entirecommunity.(PA,p.
public in its signifi-
324)
cant content, since it
Dewey makes is conceived with
much the same point, reference to execution
in a productthat is
claiming that even
perceptibleand hence
when an artistis
belongs to the
alone, there is a pub-
common
world"(AE,p. 51).
And Dewey draws on
the language
metaphorto
emphasize this point:
"Language exists only
when it is listened to
as well as spoken....
Even when the artist
works in solitude ...
the artist has
to become
vicariously the
receiving audience"
(AE, p. 106).
For both Dewey
and Collingwood, the
artist's creation can
only be interpretedby
referenceto the
communityfor
whichhe
creates.Collingwood
argues that in art
proper,the artist is
playing a specialrole
for his
community:"[Thearti
st]takes it as his
business to express
not his own private
emotions ... but the
emotions he shares
with his
audience.... What he
says will be something
that his audiencesays
throughhis mouth....
Therewill
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
ucts such as curriculum,lesson plans, or weekly
goals-is not coincident with our memories of
creative teachers,or for that mattercreative par-
ents, leaders, or managers.A teacher or a man-
ager who sticks to a predeterminedscriptwill be
unableto respondeffectively to the uniqueneeds of
each situation.
In 1940 Clement Greenbergwrote that litera-
ture was the "dominantart"of the time, and that
avant-gardepainting,the "chief victim of litera-
ture,"was defined by its "revoltagainstthe dom-
inance of literature"-in practice a turn to for-
malismandaway frompropositionalcontent.41In
Greenberg'sanalysis, the avant-gardeturnedto
music as its model, viewing music as a purely
formal artthat would allow an escape from liter-
ature.If Greenbergwere writingtoday,he would
perhaps observe that performanceis the domi-nant
art of our time. The visual arts have been
heavilyinfluencedby the creativepotentialof per-
formance art, resulting in installation-specific
pieces, or multimediaworks thatintegratevideo
images or tapedsounds.In fact, the critic Michael
Kimmelman wrote in 1998, "Art today often seems
to aspire to the conditions of theaterand
film."42
Could these two books by Dewey andColling-
wood-published fouryears apartin the 1930s-be
partlyresponsiblefor the postwar"cultureof
spontaneity"-Black Mountain and beat poets,
bebop musicians, abstractexpressionists, mod-
ern dance, installationart,the emphasison com-
position as process in poetry and prose writing?
In fact, the very existence of this special issue is
evidence that performancemay be taking over
the role of "dominantart"that Greenbergonce
assigned to literature,and I view this as a wel-
come development,because it suggests that aes-
thetics will continue to focus on process in addi-
tion to product.
R. KEITH SAWYER
Department of Education
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899
INTERNET: ksawyer@artsci.wustl.edu
1. R. Keith Sawyer,"ImprovisationalCreativity:An Analy-
sis of Jazz Performance,"Creativity Research Journal 5
(1992): 253-263; R. Keith Sawyer, PretendPlay as Improvi-
sation: Conversationin the Preschool Classroom(Norwood,
NJ: LawrenceEribaumAssociates, 1997); R. Keith Sawyer,
The Journalof Aesthetics and Art Criticism
"ImprovisationalTheater:An Ethnotheoryof Conversational
Practice,"in Creativityin Performance,ed. R. Keith Sawyer
(Greenwich,CT:Ablex, 1997).
2. R. Keith Sawyer, "A DevelopmentalModel of Hetero-
glossic Improvisationin Children'sFantasyPlay,"Sociolog-ical
Studiesof Children7 (1995); R. Keith Sawyer,"Creativ-ity as
Mediated Action: A Comparisonof Improvisational
Performanceand Product Creativity,"Mind, Culture, and
Activity 2 (1995); R. Keith Sawyer, "The Semiotics of Im-
provisation:The Pragmaticsof Musical and VerbalPerfor-
mance,"Semiotica 108 (1996).
3. The Mysteryof Picasso, 1982, MK2 Diffusion and
Ines Clouzot.
4. Two recent volumes provide a good survey of this re-
search:M. A. Runco and R. S. Albert, eds., Theories of Cre-
ativity (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990);
R. J. Sternberg,ed., The Nature of Creativity(New
York:Cam-bridge University Press, 1988).
5. However, several theater groups use improvisational
processes in rehearsalas a way of generatingscript ideas-
including Chicago's Second City, and the British film
direc-tor Mike Leigh.
6. Figure 1 first appearedin Sawyer, "Creativityas
Medi-ated Action."
7. Paul Berliner,Thinkingin Jazz: The InfiniteArt of
Im-provisation (University of Chicago Press, 1994);
Ingrid Monson, Saying Something:Jazz
Improvisationand Interac-tion (Universityof Chicago
Press, 1996); Sawyer, "Improvi-sationalCreativity."
8. R. Bauman and J. Sherzer, eds., Explorations in the
Ethnographyof Speaking(New York:CambridgeUniversity
Press, 1974); D. Hymes, "TheEthnographyof Speaking,"in
Anthropologyand Human Behavior, ed. T. Gladwin and W.
C. Sturtevant(Washington:AnthropologicalSociety of
Washington,1962).
9. Despite the recent availability of these ethnographies,
most studies of improvisationalperformancehave retaineda
"compositional"approachto improvisedperformances,often
using techniquesdeveloped for the analysis of notatedscores
or scripts (see note 4 above).
10. Sawyer,"ImprovisationalTheater";Sawyer,"TheSemi-
otics of Improvisation";R. Keith Sawyer, CreatingConver-
sations: Improvisationin EverydayDiscourse (Cresskill,NJ:
HamptonPress, Inc., forthcoming);Sawyer, PretendPlay as
Improvisation.
11. Although my presentationhere focuses on verbal
im-provisation,I believe that there are
interestingparallelswith musical improvisation, which I
discuss in Sawyer, "The Semiotics of Improvisation."
12. Benedetto Croce, "On the Aesthetics of Dewey," The
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism6 (1948): 203-207;
John Dewey, "A Comment on the Foregoing Criticisms,"
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 6 (1948): 207-
209. Also see Stephen C. Pepper,"Some Questions on
Dewey's Esthetics,"in The Philosophy of John Dewey, ed.
Paul ArthurSchilpp (NorthwesternUniversity Press, 1939);
George H. Douglas, "A Reconsideration of the Dewey-Croce
Exchange," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti-cism 28
(1970): 497-504; Thomas M. Alexander, John Dewey's
Theory of Art, Experience,and Nature: The Hori-zons of
Feeling (SUNY Press, 1987).
13. George HenryLewes, Problemsof
Lifeand Mind,vol. II (London:Trubner&
Company, 1875), p. 412 passim.
Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 161

14. G. H. Mead, The
Philosophy of the
Present, ed. Arthur
E. Murphy(University of
Chicago Press, 1932),
p. 2.
15. Ibid., p. 14.
16. Monroe C.
Beardsley, "On the
Creationof Art," The
Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism23 (1965):
309.
17. Clement
Greenberg, "Avant-
Gardeand Kitsch," in
Perceptions and
Judgments, 1939-1944,
vol. 1 of The Col-lected
Essays and Criticism
(University of Chicago
Press, 1986), p. 17,
originallypublishedin
PartisanReview6 (1939):
34-49.
18. Ibid., p. 8.
19. John Dewey, Art as
Experience (New
York:Perigree Books,
1934), p. 214. This work
will be referredto as AE
with page numbersin the
text for all
subsequentcitations.
20. R. G. Collingwood,
The Principles of Art (New
York: Oxford
UniversityPress, 1938), p.
305. This work will be re-
ferred to as PA with page
numbersin the text for all
subse-quent citations. Such
interpretationsare
reminiscent of
Marx'sdescriptionsof the
relationshipsbetween labor
activ-ity and the
commodity:the commodity
is "congealedlabor" or
"frozen activity." Karl
Marx, The Marx-Engels
Reader (New York:Norton,
1978), p. 307. In the same
way, the art product is
congealed aesthetic activity.
Dewey's early neo-
Hegelianismis well
known, and the Croce-
Collingwoodaes-thetic
also draws on this
tradition.
21. Jacob W. Getzels
and Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi,The
Creative Vision(New
York:Wiley, 1976).
22. Greenberg,"Avant-
Gardeand
Kitsch,"p. 18.
23. Leo Steinberg,
Other Criteria:
Confrontationswith
Twentieth-CenturyArt
(New
York:OxfordUniversity
Press, 1972), p. 62.
24. Daniel Belgrad, The
Cultureof
Spontaneity:Improvi-
sationand theArtsin
PostwarAmerica(University
of Chicago
Press,1998).Belgradinclude
sin thisaestheticthe
BlackMoun-tain and beat
poets, bebop
musicians,abstractexpressio
nists, and moderndance.
25. Collingwood's "artas
language"discussion has
not re-ceived much
attention,even in the
recentdefense of Colling-
wood by Aaron Ridley in
this journal ("Not Ideal:
Colling-wood's Expression
Theory,"The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art
Criticism 55 [1997]: 263-
272). But see
GarryHagberg,
Art as Language (Cornell
UniversityPress, 1995). As a
lan-guage researcher,I was
impressedby Collingwood's
critique of his
contemporaries-the
grammarians(PA,pp. 254-
259) and the logicians (PA,
pp. 259-268). Collingwood's
argu-ments prefigure the
critiques of
Chomskianlinguistics that
emerged in the 1960s and
1970s in anthropologyand
soci-olinguistics. And the
theory of artpresentedin
Book III dis-plays
remarkableoverlap with
contemporarysociocultural
theories of
creativitythatemerged in
psychology only in the
1980s.
26. Sawyer, Creating
Conversations.
27. HerbertBlumer,Symb
olicInteractionism:Perspect
ive and
Method(EnglewoodCliffs,
for Dewey, language and
NJ: Prentice-Hall,Inc.,
music both sharedthe
1969), p. 70.
structureof experience, and
28. Although this paper
music, because of the
focuses on verbal
improvisation, obvious temporaldi-
mension, was of all the arts
the most representativeof
his aesthetictheory(AE,p.
184). AlthoughDewey does
not men-tion
improvisationexplicitly
(except
parentheticallycompar-ing
"jazzed music" to movies
and comic strips, p. 5), his
metaphoric descriptions of
experience, often
emphasizing rhythm,would
seem quite familiartojazz
musicians.For ex-ample,
"all interactions... in the
whirling flux of change are
rhythms.Thereis ebb
andflow ...
orderedchange"(AE,p. 16).
29. Alan Donagan,
TheLaterPhilosophyofR.
G. Colling-wood, (New
York: Oxford University
Press, 1962), p. 130. On
page 131, Donagan writes
that Collingwood did not
ac-cept that all discourse
was art until after he wrote
the earlier Essay on
Philosophical Method. This
was always Croce's point,
but Collingwood had
earlierrejectedit.
30. Peter G.
Ingram,"Art,Language,a
nd Communityin
Collingwood's Principles
of Art," The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art
Criticism27 (1978): 56.
31. Steinberg,Other
Criteria,p. 81
32. Although note,
Collingwood seems to
contradicthim-self here:
earlierhe says that the
work is done "in the head"
of the artist.
33. T. Owens, Charlie
Parker: Techniquesof
Improvisa-tion. (Ph.D. diss.,
University of California,
Los Angeles, 1974). Selected
motifs from Owens's
dissertationappearin
several entries in The New
Grove Dictionary of Jazz
(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