About the Book
The aesthetics of imperfection emphasises spontaneity, disruption, process and energy over formal perfection and is often ignored by many commentators or seen only in improvisation. This comprehensive collection is the first time imperfection has been explored across all kinds of musical performance, whether improvisation or interpretation of compositions.
Covering music, visual art, dance, comedy, architecture and design, it addresses the meaning, experience, and value of improvisation and spontaneous creation across different artistic media. A distinctive feature of the volume is that it brings together contributions from theoreticians and practitioners, presenting a wider range of perspectives on the issues involved. Contributors look at performance and practice across Western and non-Western musical, artistic and craft forms. Composers and non-performing artists offer a perspective on what is ‘imperfect’ or improvisatory within their work, contributing further dimensions to the discourse.
The Aesthetics of Imperfection in Music and the Arts features 39 chapters organised into eight sections and written by a diverse group of scholars and performers. They consider divergent definitions of aesthetics, employing both 18th-century philosophy and more recent socially and historically situated conceptions making this an essential, up-to-date resource for anyone working on either side of the perfection-imperfection debate.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction, Andy Hamilton and Lara Pearson
SECTION 1: THE POSITIVE VALUE OF IMPERFECTION
1. The Aesthetics of Imperfection: The Finished Work, and Process Versus Product, Andy Hamilton
2. Taking Aim at Imperfection , David Lloyd
3. The Aesthetics of Imperfection, John Tilbury
4. Reflections on the Value of Imperfection in Crafts Through the Japanese Philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, Vasiliki Tsaknaki
5. Built from the Root, Ever-changing at the Bloom: The Role of Imperfection in Systems of Musical Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax, Nate Wooley
6. Imperfect World, Linda Catlin Smith
SECTION 2: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
7. A Socially Situated Approach to Aesthetics: Games and Challenges in Karnatak Music, Lara Pearson
8. A Social Aesthetics of Imperfection: Spontaneity and Meaning in Pop on the Streets of China, Samuel Horlor
9. Age, Process, and Self-Raising Flour, Cara Stacey
10. Learning Music Aesthetics Through Imperfection: The Transmission of Shakuhachi Music, Kiku Day
SECTION 3: COMPOSITION V. IMPROVISATION
11. The Inter-Dependence of Composition and Improvisation, Rohan De Saram
12. Improvising Beyond Hamilton’s Aesthetics of Imperfection, Louise Gibbs
13. Better Than Perfect: Dave Brubeck and The Aesthetics of Imperfection, Darius Brubeck
14. The Aesthetics of Imperfection in Jazz and Free Improvisation, Trevor Barre
15. Decisions, Revisions, Intentions and Integrity: A Subjective Understanding of Composition and Improvisation, Paul Edis
16. A Literary Aesthetic of Perfection and Imperfection, Rebecca Wallbank
SECTION 4: INTERPRETATION AND FREEDOM
17. Embracing Serendipity in Classical Performance, Stephanie Cant
18. That is Not Freedom, That is Taking License: The Pitfalls in Performing Morton Feldman's Graph Scores, John Snijders
19. Expanding the Ideal: Systemic Music as a Dialogue of Becoming, Kris Tiner
SECTION 5: RISK, DISRUPTION AND FAILURE
20. Live Coding and Failure, Shelly Knotts
21. The Aesthetics of Failure, Claire Zakiewicz
22. The Mistake as Material, Corey Mwamba
23. The Aesthetics of Imperfection: Mistakes, and Hearing What You Intend, Enrico Pieranunzi
24. Risk in Improvisation and in Comedy, Donnchadh O’Conaill
25. Risk, Failure and Courage: Improvisation and Stand-Up Comedy, Víctor Durà-Vilà
26. Inciting Uncertainty, Mike Baggetta
27. Championing Risk and Discovery: Satoko Fujii and the Experimental Composition Improvisation Continuum, Alister Spence
SECTION 6: COLLABORATION IN PERFORMANCE
28. Imperfect Unity and Productive Frictions: Ethics and Aesthetics of Play in Dance Improvisation, Annie Kloppenberg
29. Cross Purposes: Imperfect Interactions When Improvising With Others, Graeme B. Wilson
30. An Audience for Free Jazz: Joe McPhee Interviewed, Joe McPhee
31. Is Love Too Strong a Term?The Dissolution of Distinction Between Aesthetics and Sociality in a Moving Orchestra, Jim Denley
SECTION 7: THE INSTRUMENTAL IMPULSE
32. The Instrumental Impulse: Developing a Free Improvisation Vocabulary for Alternative Keyboard Instruments, Adam Fairhall
33. Rarely Heard, Small Unwanted Sounds Form the Focus, Dave Brown aka Candlesnuffer
34. The Disagreeable Subject of Varése's Father: In Conversation With David Brown, Reuben Lewis
35. The Necks on the Aesthetics of Imperfection, Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton, Tony Buck
36. 'Stardust': Seeing and Imagining What isn't There, Martin Mayes
SECTION 8: FINISHED AND UNFINISHED WORK
37. Architecture of Imperfection: Unfinished Sketches and Burke's Sublime, Elizabeth Baldwin Gray
38. Still Water Moves, Philip G. Robinson
39. Notating Perfection? Beethoven and the Late String Quartets, Rachel Stroud
Index
About the Author :
Andy Hamilton teaches Philosophy at Durham University, UK.
Lara Pearson is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Germany.
Review :
Failure, uncertainty, risk and imperfection are the topics that Hamilton and Pearson bring together, in a constellation of essays, interviews, music analysis and reflections by creative artists and writers. They show that if we embrace imperfection, we are celebrating the essence of human creativity. This book offers us solace that art will survive for as long as humans do.
This lively collection of essays and interviews offers a fresh and vital addition to studies of creativity. The volume gives practitioners the space for insightful, probing, analytic and honest reflections on their practice. Strongly recommended as a model for further explorations into creativity, as well as for the rich and engaging provocations it contains.
This book addresses very clearly some of the central artistic and musical questions that have defined my working life. The contributors help me ponder the issues of imperfection vs. perfection anew.
