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: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
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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 creativegenres
includingboth 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,overlongtimeperiods.But
sical scores-which remainafterthe creativeact an improvisedperformanceis createdin the mo-
is complete.Productcreativitygenerallyinvolves ment, onstage, andcan easily be observedby the
a long period of creative work leading up to the researcher.Second, many improvisationalper-
creative product.In contrast,in improvisational formancegenresarefundamentallycollaborative.
performance,the creativeprocess is the product; Observingthis collaborationonstageis relatively
the audienceis watching the creativeprocess 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 studyaestheticsandthe
psychology of creativity after I observed that
everydayconversationis creativelyimprovised-
there is no scriptthat guides a conversation.My In his studio,Picasso is paintingfree-form,with-
empiricalresearchhas focused on threetypes of out preconceivedimage or composition;he is ex-
improvised discourse: improvisational theater, perimentingwith colors, forms, and moods. He
children'sfantasy play, and everyday conversa- startswith a figure of a recliningnude-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- throughthe air after being gored by a bull-so
the tension between structureand practice, is- he paints over the nude and creates an image of
sues of textuality,discourse,structureversusplay, a bull and matador.But this leads him to yet an-
and heteroglossia.2Thus my theoreticalframe- otheridea;he paintsover the bullfightimage and
workhas evolved from the empiricallygrounded begins work on a Mediterraneanharbor-with
attemptto identify and characterizespecific in- water-skier,bathersin bikinis, and a picturesque
teractionalmechanismsthat are used to create a hilltop village.
collective improvisationalperformance. The free-forminspirationcontinues.Five hours
In thispaper,I will focus on some philosophical later,Picasso stops anddeclaresthathe will have
implicationsof my evolving analysesof improvi- to discardthe canvas-it has not worked.But the
sationalgroup performance.In this discussion,I time was not wasted-he has discovered some
will make explicit the relationshipsbetween im- new ideas, ideas that have emergedfrom his in-
provisationalperformanceand product-oriented teractionwith the canvas,ideas thathe can use in
artssuch as painting,writing,and music compo- his next painting. Picasso says, "Now that I
sition, by drawingon Dewey's model of "artas begin to see where I'm going with it, I'll take a
experience"and Collingwood's model of "artas new canvas and startagain."
The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism58:2 Spring2000

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150 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism

Improvisational creativity Product creativity

Type of Immediate Delayed

interaction (single reception) (multiplereceptions)

Mediation Ephemeralsigns Ostensibleproducts

Creative process Public, collective, coincident Private,individual,distinct

with product from/generatesproduct
Figure 1. Some differences between improvisational and product creativity.

This five-hour improvisationwas capturedin provisationaltheater,the actorscollectively cre-

the Claude Renoir film, The Mystery of Picasso, ate an emergentdialogue; like jazz, this process
using time-lapse photography.3I always show is, in fact, the essence of improvised perform-
the Picasso film to my students,because it helps ance. The purpose is not to generate a product;
to dispel some common myths about artists- the performanceis the product.5In contrast,in
that inspirationalways precedes execution, that product creativity, the artist has an unlimited
artistsnever edit their work, thateverythingthat period of time to contemplate,edit, and revise
is paintedis releasedto the world. Perhapsthese the work. This creative process, which may be
myths arise from our tendency to focus on the largely invisible to the public, results in a cre-
products of creativity-the finished paintings, ative productthatis thendisplayedto the audience
sculptures,andmusicalscores thatcriticsreview, (see figure 1).6
thatare left for futuregenerationsto analyze and Improvisationalperformancegenres include
interpret.This film gives us a rare opportunity both musical interaction,such as small-group
to view, instead, the improvisationalprocess of jazz, and most types of verbal interaction,from
creativity-the real,lived experienceof the artist, loosely structuredconversationto moreritualized
interactingand improvisingin his studio. performancegenres. Thus improvisationalinter-
Psychologists who study creativityhave like- actioncan be mediatedby bothlinguisticandmu-
wise focused on product creativity, creative do- sical symbols. In improvisationalperformance,a
mains in which productsare created over time, collectivecreativeprocessconstitutesthe creative
with unlimitedopportunitiesfor revision by the product:an ephemeralpublicperformance.
creatorbefore the productis displayed.4Product Because improvisationalcreativityis ephem-
creativity is found in artistic domains such as eral, and does not generatea permanentproduct,
sculpture, painting, and musical compositions. it has perhapsbeen easy to neglect.Althoughim-
This focus in psychology is consistent with the provisationalcreativity has not been a subject
fields of aestheticsand artcriticism, which have for aesthetics, it may actually representa more
also tended to focus more on artworksthan on common, more accessible form of creativity.If
the creativeprocess. one recognizes that all social interactionsdis-
Unlike productcreativity-which involves a play improvisational elements, then everyday
long period of creative work leading up to the activities such as conversationbecome relevant
creative product-in improvisationalcreativity, to aesthetics, as both Dewey and Collingwood
the process is the product.For example, a small- claimed. Creativityin interactionaldomains,in-
groupjazz ensemble collaboratesonstage spon- cluding teaching, parenting, and mentoring, is
taneously to create the performance.The per- recognized to be importantto our lives and our
formancethat results emerges from the musical culture.Yet in partbecause it does not generate
interactionsamongmultiplebandmembers;there a product,these improvisationalinteractionsare
is no directorto guide the performance,and no resistantto aestheticanalysis.
script for the musicians to follow. And in im- Like psychology and aesthetics, many per-

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Sawyer Improvisationand the CreativeProcess 151

formance-oriented fields have neglected im- I will begin by describingimprovisationalthe-

provisation, including folkloristics, ethnomusi- aterperformance,and I will identify five impor-
cology, and musicology.The few treatmentsthat tantcharacteristicsof improvisation.Then, I will
exist have been ethnographic descriptions of focus on each of these five characteristicsin turn,
musicalandverbalperformancegenres.In music, and for each, arguethat both Dewey's and Col-
in additionto a recent focus on jazz,7 European lingwood's theories emphasize exactly that as-
andAmericanwritershave writtenwidely on the pect of the aesthetic experience. The focus on
Indian raga, the Javanese gamelan, the Arabic improvisationreveals many similaritiesbetween
and Turkish maqam, the Iraniandastgah, and these very differentphilosophers;their theories
groupAfrican drumming.Studies of verbal im- unite on all five characteristics.And by applying
provisationare primarilyfound in the branchof each theory to the concrete case of improvisa-
linguisticanthropologycalled the ethnographyof tional theater, we will see where each theory
speaking.8 These researchers focus on public could benefitfromelaboration,andsuggest some
verbal performancein a varietyof cultures;most propertiesof an aesthetictheorythat would ade-
of these performancegenresincorporateimprov- quately addressimprovisationalcreativity.
isationalelements.9 There is no extant evidence that Dewey read
In this paper,I will drawon several empirical Collingwood'swork,or vice versa.However,the
studies of groupverbalimprovisation,including exchange between Croce and Dewey in the late
improvisationaltheateractors,ritualverbal per- 1940s (in the pages of thisjournal)seems to sug-
formancein a range of cultures,everyday small gest a connection,since Collingwood'stheoryis
talk,andchildren'sfantasyplay dialogues.10 When often associated with Croce.12But this debate
I began my studyof creativityduringimprovisa- largelyhas to do with whetherDewey's theoryis
tion, I was surprisedto discover a complete ab- an idealist theory-rather than a pragmatist
sence of research on performancecreativity- one-and whether Croce has correctly under-
neither improvisation nor scripted theater had stood Dewey. By focusing on improvisationand
been studiedby psychologists.So I expandedmy communication,my approachin the following
search to other disciplines, looking for theoreti- leads me down a different path from the tradi-
cal models that might help me to understand tional Croce-Dewey comparison.
the process of groupimprovisation.In a rangeof
theoreticalarticles, I have drawn on semiotics, II
folkloristics,sociolinguistics,anddiscourseanaly-
sis." Because of my focus on discourse, when I In improvisationaltheater,an ensemble of actors
began to study the aesthetics literature,I was createsa scene onstage, withoutany prearranged
drawnto theoriesthatemphasizethe communica- dialogue,with no characterassignments,and no
tive, interactionalproperties of art-primarily plot outline. Everythingabout the performance
those of John Dewey and R. G. Collingwood. is createdcollectively by the actors, onstage, in
Most aestheticianshave the same implicitbias as front of the audience. The following brief tran-
psychologistswho studycreativity:they focus on scriptof the first thirtyseconds of an improvised
culturallyvaluedartforms-the high artslike ab- theatersketch, which lasted a total of aboutfive
stractpaintingor orchestralcomposition-to the minutes,helps to demonstratethe collective and
almost complete neglect of performance. contingentaspects of improvisation.
I will argue here that at the core of both Four actors stand at the back of the stage.
Dewey's and Collingwood's theories is a theory Actor A begins the scene.
of art as improvisation.By focusing my discus-
sion on improvisation,I will bringout aspectsof (1) (ActorA walks to centerstage, pulls up a chairand
both theorists that have been neglected in most sits down, mimingthe actionof drivingby holding
analyses. Of course, there is a lot in both theo- an imaginarysteeringwheel)
rists thatI will not be mentioning-this is of ne- (2) (Actor B walks to A, standsnext to him, fishes in
cessity a selective reading.But I believe thatthis pocket for something)
focus on improvisationcomes close to revealing (3) A: On or off?
the essence of both men's theories, and in any (4) B: I'm getting on, sir (continues fishing in his
case does not misrepresenteither. pocket)

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152 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism

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

(6) B: I'm getting in! I'm getting in! tional details or plot twists;the dramaticframeis
(7) A: Did I see you tryin' to get in the back door a always changing, emerging from the acts of all
couple of stops back? actors.
(8) B: Uh ... An improvisedscene is emergent,in both the
classic coinageof the nineteenth-century philoso-
Actor A, taking the first turn, is able to act pherGeorgeHenryLewes, andin the contempo-
without creative constraints.His initial nonver- rary sense associated with connectionism and
bal act is to sit in a chair and mime the act of distributedcognition.13Lewes'sconceptof "emer-
holding a steeringwheel. This suggests thathe is gence" was widely discussedin the 1920s,largely
the driver and is sitting in a vehicle. However, by evolutionarybiologists but also by the prag-
this initial suggestion leaves many possible op- matists.In a seriesof lecturesat Berkeleyin 1930,
tions for Actor B in turn (2). For example, B G. H. Mead elaborateda pragmatisttheory of
could have pulledup a secondchairandsat down emergence:"Theemergentwhen it appearsis al-
next to the "driver,"and she would have become ways found to follow from the past, but before it
a passengerin a car.A's initial act does not indi- appears,it does not, by definition, follow from
cate whetherthe vehicle is moving or not; it does the past."14Mead was commentingon the con-
not indicatethe type of vehicle; it does not indi- tingencyof improvisationalinteraction:although
cate the role of his character,northe relationship a retrospectiveexaminationreveals a coherent
with any other character.B's act in (2) also interaction,each social act provides a range of
leaves many options open for A in turn (3). In creative options, any one of which could have
(3), for example, A could have addressedB as resultedin a radicallydifferentperformance.The
his friendsearchingfor theatertickets.The range emergentwas the fundamentalanalyticcategory
of dramaticoptions available onstage is practi- for Mead's philosophy,and the paramountissue
cally unlimited:for example,at (2), B could have for social science. Mead claimed, "It is the task
addressedA as CaptainKirkof Star Trek,initiat- of the philosophy of today to bring into congru-
ing a television show parody.A's utterancein (3) ence with each other this universalityof deter-
begins to add more detail to the emerging dra- mination which is the text of modern science,
matic frame. "On or off?" would not be an ap- and the emergenceof the novel."'5
propriatestatementfor the driverof a car.It sug-
gests thatA is a professionaldriverof a bus (but III
also, note, is compatiblewith A driving a plane,
boat, or spaceship).Turn(3) also implies a rela- In this section, I will use five characteristicsof
tionship:B is 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 artto 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 andCollingwoodwithinthis five-
the actorshave establisheda reasonablycomplex characteristicframework.Althoughin each case,
drama,a collectively createddramaticframethat they aredevelopinga theoryof all art,andspecif-
will guide the subsequentdialogue. They know ically of productcreativity,both base their aes-
thatA is a bus driverandthatB is a potentialpas- thetics-even if only implicitly-on a theoryof
senger.A is getting a little impatient,and B may the creativeprocess 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 retaindramaticcoherence with this frame. Those who studythe artshave historicallytended

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Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 153

to focus on art products,ratherthan on the pro- that the visible, ostensible productis essentially
cesses thatgeneratethem.This is truenot only of irrelevantto art proper:"A work of art may be
art historians and of psychologists, but also of completely createdwhen it has been createdas a
aestheticiansand artcritics. Some argueagainst thing whose only place is in the artist's mind"
a considerationof creativeprocess on principle; (PA,p. 130).
for example, in arguingagainstone form of criti- Collingwood's theoryis not quite adequateto
cal intentionalism,MonroeBeardsleyarguedthat the phenomenonof stagedimprovisation,because
understandingthe creative process "makes no of his insistence that the real work of art occurs
difference at all," and that he does "not see that only in the head of the artist.When he mentions
this has any bearingupon the value of what [the live improvisation(in passing), he insists that it
artist]produces."16 is only incidentalto real art:"Whena manmakes
However,a few influentialartcriticshave em- up a tune,he may andvery often does at the same
phasizedthatartworkscannotbe understoodwith- time hum it or sing it or play it on an instrument.
out considering process. Clement Greenberg's ... he may do these things in public, so that the
influential position on modern abstractart was tune at its very birthbecomes public property....
that "the avant-gardeimitates the processes of But all these are accessories of the real work.
art"ratherthanimitatingnature.17The subjectof The actualmaking of the tune is somethingthat
the artis "thedisciplines andprocessesof artand goes on in his head, and nowhere else" (PA,
literaturethemselves."18 The processes of art of p. 134). In this insistence, Collingwood is mak-
a given stage in history are the propersubjectof ing the same errorthat he later attributesto "in-
artfor the following stage. dividualistic psychology" (see below); in im-
The distinctionbetween creative process and provisationaltheater,the essence of the creative
resultingproductwas one of the centralthemes process is social and interactional, and cannot
of Americanpragmatism.Dewey based his aes- be reduced to the inspirationor mental process
thetictheoryon the distinctionbetweenartprod- of any single actor.
uct and work of art: "The product of art ... is not In contrast, Dewey's pragmatistframework
the work of art."19The work of art is a psycho- leads him to emphasize action in the world, and
logical process; it is "active and experienced.It the practicaleffects of that action, and for these
is whattheproductdoes,its working"(AE,p. 162). reasonshe does not focus on whatis "inthe head"
Dewey's theory of art as experience lends it- of the artist.
self naturallyto an extension to the performing
arts and to improvisation. ii. Problem-findingand problem-solving. The
film of Picassoimprovisingathis canvasis particu-
In seeing a picture or an edifice, there is the same larlystriking,becausemostof us neversee an artist
compression from accumulationin time that there is in action-we only see finishedpaintingsin gal-
in hearingmusic, readinga poem or novel, and seeing leries andmuseums.But Picassois not unusual-
a dramaenacted.No workof artcan be instantaneously this improvisationalstyle, calledproblem-finding
perceivedbecausethereis thenno opportunityfor con- by creativityresearchers,is used by most success-
servationand increaseof tension. ... It follows thatthe ful painters, as the psychologists Getzels and
separationof rhythmand symmetry from each other Csikszentmihalyidiscoveredin a ten-yearstudy
and the division of the artsinto temporaland spatialis of Master of Fine Arts students at one of the
more thanmisappliedingenuity.It is based on a prin- country's top art schools, the School of the Art
ciple that is destructive... of esthetic understanding. Instituteof Chicago.21
A "problem-finding" painter
(AE, pp. 182-183) is constantlysearchingfor her or his visual prob-
lem whilepainting-improvisinga paintingrather
Collingwood also made a similar distinction thanexecutingone. In contrast,aproblem-solving
the core of his aesthetictheory:"Thepaintedpic- style involves startingwith a relatively detailed
tureis not the work of art.... [However,]its pro- plan for a composition and then simply painting
duction is somehow necessarily connected with it; "problem-solving"becausethe painterdefines
the aestheticactivity,thatis, with the creationof a visual problem for herself or himself before
the imaginativeexperience which is the work of starting,with the execution of the paintingcon-
art."20Collingwood also makes a strong claim sisting of "solving"the problem.

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154 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism

An improvisationaltheaterperformanceis also, felicitous qualityof a workof art;it saves it from

of necessity, a problem-findingprocess-albeit being mechanical"(AE, p. 139).
a collective one, akinto a brainstormingsession. It is not surprisingthattwo very differentphil-
Forcomparison,considera traditionaltheaterper- osophers would develop a problem-findingthe-
formance,perhapsa play by Shakespeare,where ory of art in the 1930s, after several decades of
the actors start with a script, with memories of abstract,nonrepresentational painting.As Clement
past performancesby other companies-a long Greenbergobservedof artistsin the MiddleAges,
traditionof Shakespeareantheater.This type of "Precisely because his content was determined
performancewouldbe 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- andinventivein his 'matter'andcould devote all
ements emerge from the dialogue, in a problem- his energy to formal problems."22Perhapsonly
findingprocessthatis collaborativeandemergent. in Greenberg's avant-gardecould a problem-
The modempsychologicaldistinctionbetween finding 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 Artcriticshave debatedthe role of spontaneity
artistis problem-finding: in modern art, in part because of this historical
andculturallocatedness.The abstractexpression-
[Craft] involves a distinction between planning and ists were famous for their supposedly improvi-
execution. The result to be obtained is preconceived sationalpaintingstyles. HaroldRosenbergcalled
or thoughtout before being arrivedat. (PA, p. 15) them"TheAmericanActionPainters"to describe
their nondeliberateapproachto the canvas-yet
In contrast: Leo Steinberg criticized this term, noting that
Kline and de Kooning made theirpaintingswith
Art as such does not imply the distinction between deliberation,carefullyworking them towardthe
planningand execution (p. 22). ... [The work of art]is appearanceof spontaneity.Steinberghints that
somethingmade by the artist,but not made ... by car- thereis somethingdistinctlyAmericanaboutthis
rying out a preconceivedplan, norby way of realizing valorizationof the problem-findingstyle: "Itap-
the means to a preconceivedend. (PA, p. 125) pealed once againto 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 Culture of Spontaneity, Daniel Belgrad also ex-
non-technically,but yet consciously and volun- plores and elaboratesthe culturaland historical
tarily"(PA,p. 128). And creationdoes not have locatednessof the post-WorldWarII "impulseto
to be physical or ostensible: "a work of art may valorizespontaneousimprovisation."24 In this era
be completely created when it has been created of cultural studies, no one should be surprised
as a thingwhose only place is in the artist'smind" that not only our art,but also our aesthetictheo-
(PA, p. 130); although it is hard to imagine Pi- ries, areconsistentwith andemergefrombroader
casso's beach scene emerging withouthis inter- culturalvalues.
action with 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 academicproduct"(AE, p. 138). An syntax, of language. Collingwood, in particular,
artworkwill only be greatif the artistfindsa prob- goes to great lengths to criticize views of lan-
lem during the process of creation:"The unex- guage that, if anything,became more dominant
pected turn, something which the artisthimself in the ensuing decades. Collingwood arguesthat
does not definitely foresee, is a condition of the art is not like the language of the grammarians,

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Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 155

whom he criticizes for focusing on the product, with people or the physical environment:"expe-
ratherthan the activity, of speaking, and for di- rience is the result, the sign, and the rewardof
viding languageinto words and grammaticalre- that interaction of organism and environment
lations. Collingwood also argues that art is not which ... is a transformationof interactioninto
like the languageof the logical positivists,whom participationand communication"(AE, p. 22).28
he criticizes for analyzing sentences as proposi- This is whereDewey meets Collingwood:they
tional statements,andanalyzingtheirtruthvalue. both sharea communicationtheoryof art.Dewey
Instead, by focusing on language as activity, repeatedly states that communicationis the es-
Collingwood focuses on everyday conversation sential propertyof art: "Because the objects of
in social contexts.25 art are expressive, they communicate.I do not
Dewey often compares aesthetic experience say thatcommunicationto othersis the intentof
to everyday conversation:"Acts of social inter- an artist.But it is the consequence of his work"
course are works of art"(AE, p. 63). They each (AE, p. 104).
areinteractional,andhave a temporaldimension. Collingwood'stheoryof artis generallyknown
Dewey writes,"Moliere'scharacterdid not know as an "expression"theory of art.But I thinkit is
he had been talking prose all his life. So men in more accuratelycalled a communicationtheory
general are not aware that they have been exer- of art,becausefor Collingwood,artproperis that
cising an artas long as they have engagedin spo- artwhich"producesin [theaudience]... sensuous-
ken intercoursewith others"(AE, p. 240). emotionalor psychicalexperienceswhich, when
Thus the connection with improvisation:In raised from impressionsto ideas by the activity
many ways, everydayconversationsare also im- of the spectator'sconsciousness, are transmuted
provised. Especially in casual small talk, we do into a total imaginativeexperienceidenticalwith
not speak from a script;our conversationis col- that of the painter"(PA, p. 308). This usage of
lectively created, and emerges from the actions "experience"is quite compatiblewith Dewey's.
of everyonepresent.In everyconversation,we ne- Both Dewey and Collingwood point out that
gotiateall of thepropertiesof thedramaticframe- by calling art a language,they do not want us to
where the conversation will go, what kind of makethe mistakeof privilegingverbalor linguis-
conversationwe are having, what our social re- tic communicationas any kind of ultimate lan-
lationshipis, when it will end.26In fact, improv- guage. Dewey arguesthat it is a mistaketo priv-
isationaltheaterdialoguecan best be understood ilege spoken language,andto thinkthatbecause
as a special case of everyday conversation. art expresses things, those things can be trans-
Collingwood presents a pragmatist,socially latedintowords."Infact,each artspeaksanidiom
contextualizedtheory of language as utterance, that conveys what cannotbe said in anotherlan-
as gesture, as act. His presentationprefiguresan guage and yet remains the same" (AE, p. 106).
importanttraditionin the late-twentieth-century Dewey writes,"Becauseobjectsof artareexpres-
study of language-the analysis of languageuse sive, they are a language.Rather,they are many
and language function that today includes con- languages" (AE, p. 106). Each art has its own
versationanalysis,sociolinguistics,andthe study medium, and each one is like a different lan-
of language use in culturalcontext. These con- guage, with our spoken language being just an-
temporaryapproacheswere indirectlyinfluenced other one of the modes of communication.
by Americanpragmatismthroughits social psy- Nonetheless, "Artis the most universalform of
chological descendant,symbolic interactionism, language ... it is the most universal and freest
which took as its object of study social improvi- form of communication"(AE, p. 270).
sation: "the largercollective form of action that Collingwood and Dewey both make explicit
is constitutedby the fitting togetherof the lines the implications of their theories: that all lan-
of behaviorof the separateparticipants."27 guage (as they have defined it) is aesthetic.
When everyday conversation is improvisa- Collingwood emphaticallystates, "Every utter-
tional, it shares many propertieswith Dewey's ance andevery gesturethateach one of us makes
notion of experience.Dewey's theoryof the aes- is a work of art"(PA,p. 285). And Collingwood
thetic experiencedependson his characterization acknowledges that his theory of art entails that
of experience as improvisationaland yet struc- many everyday activities-not only the "high
tured. Dewey defines experience as interaction arts"-are aesthetic. As Alan Donagan writes:

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156 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism

"Collingwood'sdefinition entails that you must lic and social aspect to his creativity:"Eventhe
recognize as works of art,on the one hand,every composition conceived in the head and, there-
racy and lively contributionto conversation ... fore, physically private, is public in its signifi-
and on the other,every scientific andphilosophi- cant content,since it is conceived with reference
cal treatise."29And as Peter Ingramrecentlyob- to execution in a productthat is perceptibleand
served in this journal,"In engaging in linguistic hence belongs to the commonworld"(AE,p. 51).
activities in a creative way, we are all artists. And Dewey draws on the languagemetaphorto
There is no distinctionbetween the 'artist'and emphasize this point: "Language exists only
the ordinaryman."30 when it is listened to as well as spoken. ... Even
when the artist works in solitude ... the artist has
iv. The importance of collaboration. In improvi- to become vicariously the receiving audience"
sationaltheater,collaborationbetween actors is (AE, p. 106).
an essential aspect of the creative process-no For both Dewey and Collingwood,the artist's
one actor can generatea performancealone; in- creationcan only be interpretedby referenceto
stead, the actors have to rely on the group col- the communityfor whichhe creates.Collingwood
lectively to generatethe scene throughdialogue. argues that in art proper,the artist is playing a
And a defining feature of improvisationalthe- specialrole for his community:"[Theartist]takes
ateris the involvement of the audience-the ac- it as his business to express not his own private
tors always ask the audience membersto shout emotions ... but the emotions he shares with his
out suggestions to start each scene, and many audience. ... What he says will be something that
groupspause scenes in the middle to ask for au- his audience says through his mouth. ... There will
dience direction. More fundamentally,like all thus be somethingmore than mere communica-
humor, the actors assume that the audience tion from artistto audience,therewill be collab-
shares a large body of culturalknowledge and orationbetweenaudienceandartist"(PA,p. 312).
references. In this sense, the audience guides This is why Collingwoodfeels thatartisticactiv-
their improvisation. ity is the propertyof an entirecommunity,not of
In a 1968 lecture, Leo Steinbergemphasized an individualcreator."[Theartist]undertakeshis
the role of the audiencein saying, "I suspectthat artisticlabornot as a personaleffort on his own
all works of art or stylistic cycles are definable privatebehalf, but as a public laboron behalf of
by theirbuilt-inidea of the spectator."3'Colling- the communityto whichhe belongs"(PA,p. 315).
wood makes a fairly extreme statementthat the Dewey also emphasizes that art is a communal
audience is not only an influence, but should be process, not an individualor psychological one:
consideredto be a collaboratorwith the artist: "[Art] is not an isolated event confined to the
artistandto a personhere andtherewho happens
The workof artisticcreationis not a workperformedin to enjoy the work. In the degree in which artex-
any exclusive or complete fashion in the mind of the ercises its office, it is also a remakingof the ex-
personwhom we call the artist.Thatidea is a delusion perience of the community in the direction of
bredof individualisticpsychology.... This activityis a greaterorderand unity"(AE, p. 81).
corporateactivity belonging not to any one human Both Dewey and Collingwood emphasizethe
being but to a community.It is performednot only by collaborationsbetween the artistand their audi-
the man whom we individualisticallycall the artist,but ences, ratherthanthe collaborationsbetween art-
partlyby all the otherartistsof whom we speakas "in- ists that are the essence of improvisationalthe-
fluencing"him, where we really mean collaborating ater.However, Collingwood does acknowledge
with him. It is performednot only by this corporate the importanceof collaborationamong a com-
body of artists,but (in the case of the artsof perform- munity of artists,criticizing the "individualistic
ance)by executants... and... theremustbe an audience, theory of authorship"and even recommending
whose functionis thereforenot a merelyreceptiveone, thatcopyrightlaw be changed(PA,p. 325), writ-
but collaborativetoo. The artiststandsthus in collabo- ing, "Allartistshave modeledtheirstyle uponthat
rativerelationswith an entirecommunity.(PA,p. 324) of others,used subjectsthatothershave used, and
treatedthem as othershave treatedthem already.
Dewey makes much the same point, claiming A work of artso constructedis a work of collab-
that even when an artistis alone, there is a pub- oration"(PA,p. 318).32

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Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 157

In improvisationaltheater,collaborationis es- art by borrowingand recombiningcliches from

sential to the performance-it defines the genre. formerly created real art: "The dead body ... of
And unlike the rathermore abstractform of col- the aestheticactivitybecomes a repertoryof ma-
laborationdiscussedby Dewey andCollingwood, terialsout of which an activityof a differentkind
improvisationalcollaborationis undeniablya fun- can find means adaptableto its own ends. This
damentalpartof the creative process, and it can non-aesthetic activity ... uses means which were
be observed and analyzed. once the living body of art.... It is not art,but it
simulatesart"(PA,p. 276). Art is false when the
v. The role of the ready-made in improvisation. creatoruses a "ready-made'language'whichcon-
All improvisersknow thatimprovisationdoes not sists of a repertoireof cliches to produce states
mean thatanythinggoes-improvisation always of mind in the personsupon whom these cliches
occurswithina structure,andall improvisersdraw are used" (PA,p. 276).
on ready-mades-short motifsor cliches-as they Dewey is equallypejorativeaboutcliches:"No
createtheirnovel performance.Even in the above genuine work has ever been a repetitionof any-
theater transcript,at line (8) a dramaticframe thing that previously existed. There are indeed
constrainsthe future performance,although, of worksthattend to be mere recombinationsof el-
course, the frame was created by the actors ements selected from prior works. But they are
ratherthan imposed by a predeterminedplot or academic-that is to say,mechanical-ratherthan
script. And the scene requires a great deal of esthetic"(AE,p. 288). ForDewey,perceptionof art
sharedculturalknowledge-the two actors use only occurs when the perceiveractively,aesthet-
well-known cliches, whether visual (hands on ically, createsher or his own experience."Other-
steeringwheel) or verbal ("Onor off?"). wise, thereis not perceptionbut recognition"(AE,
Ready-madesare even more importantin jazz p. 52). Recognitionusually results from cliches:
improvisation. Some of the most famous jazz "In recognition we fall back, as upon a stereo-
improvisersrelied on a large repertoireof stock type, upon some previously formed scheme."35
phrases;one of the most creativeimprovisersof The problemhere is that, like improvisation,
all time, CharlieParker,drewon a personalreper- all art relies on ready-madesof one sort or an-
toire of 100 motifs, each of them between four other.The sociologistHowardBeckerpointedout
and ten notes in length.33Jazz musicians fre- thatsharedconventionsarealwaysused by artists
quentlydiscuss an internaltensionbetween their to aid in communicatingwith their audience.36
own personallydevelopedpatterns-calledlicks ThecreativityresearcherMihalyCsikszentmihalyi
andthe need to continuallyinnovateat a personal makes much the same point when he arguesthat
level. Musicians practice and performthe same all creatorsrelyon a domain,a sharedbodyof con-
songs repeatedly,and can often express them- ventions,techniques, and historical knowledge,
selves more effectively when they have a prede- as they createnovel works.37ThusCollingwood's
veloped set of musicalideas available.However, standardfor artproperis unrealisticallyhigh; no
if this process is carriedtoo far, the improvisa- one can ever be 100 percentoriginal.
tionalnatureof the performanceis compromised. In fact, Collingwood acknowledgesthis later,
Jazz musiciansare awareof the tension between saying thatall artistshave to speakin a language
the need to develop ideas in advanceand the po- thatthey learnfrom the community:"Themusi-
tential for a gradualevolution towardpatterned cian did not invent his scale or his instruments.
rigidity.34 ... The painterdid not invent the idea of painting
The role of ready-mades is discussed- picturesor the pigmentsandbrusheswith which
pejoratively-by both Dewey andCollingwood. he paints them. ... [Artists] become poets or paint-
Collingwood'scontrastbetween "artproper"and ers or musicians ... by living in a society where these
"false art"is based largelyon the presenceor ab- languages are current"(PA, pp. 316-317). The
sence of cliches or ready-mades.These ready- problemis that Collingwood never makes clear
mades alreadyexist: They were createdby real where the line is: Whatcounts as using language
artistsas partof artproper.But if they arere-used, aesthetically,and what counts as using too much
it becomesfalse art:"artisticactivitydoes not 'use' cliche? Still later,Collingwood seems to say that
a 'ready-madelanguage,'it 'creates'languageas artistsshoulduse moreready-mades,and should
it goes along" (PA, p. 275). False art simulates be free to borrow from other artists:"We must

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158 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism

get rid of the conceptionof artisticownership. IV

If an artistmay say nothing except what he has
inventedby his own sole efforts, it standsto rea- By focusing on improvisationalperformance,we
son he will be poor in ideas" (PA,p. 325). have identified five common themes in the aes-
Dewey also acknowledges that every period thetictheoriesof Dewey andCollingwood.Essen-
andculturehas conventions,thatthe sharedcom- tially,both philosophershave developedtheories
munal experience of a people is always in the of art as improvisation by focusing on crea-
work of art: "Everyculture has its own collec- tive process, problem-finding, collaboration,
tive individuality.... this collective individuality andcommunication.And by identifyingthe com-
leaves its indelible imprintupon the art that is mon themes of these two philosophers,we have
produced"(AE,p. 330). And "Thesubject-matter begun to develop a more elaboratetheoryof im-
is chargedwith meanings that issue from inter- provisationalcreativity,or at least we have begun
course with a common world. The artist in the to see how such a theorywould have to look.
freest expression of his own responses is under At the same time, our textual comparison
weighty objective compulsions"(AE, p. 306). leaves us with several areas that need elabora-
Collingwood's distinctionbetween artproper tion, that are not sufficiently addressedby either
and false art is essentially a distinctionbetween philosopher,andthatthe phenomenonof improv-
more improvisational artandless improvisational isationalperformancemakes especially clear.
art. False art is less improvisationalbecause it
relies on ready-mades-cliches-as an economic i. Process versus product. Despite these many
shortcut.Collingwood's theory can thus be ex- similarities,productcreativityis not identicalto
tended, by analogy with performance.Perfor- improvisationalperformance-after all, it does
mances cannot be dichotomized into "improvi- resultin a product.The artisthas to interactwith
sational"and"scripted";all improvisersdrawon physicalmaterialsandhas manyopportunitiesto
ready-mades-short riffs or cliches-as they revise the work, even to discardit entirely upon
create their novel performance. Does the re- completion.A theoryof productcreativitywould
peated use of 100 personal riffs suggest that have to build onto the theoryof improvisation,in
CharlieParker'sperformanceswere "false art," this direction:To explore if, and how, this edit-
as Collingwood implies? If we have to exclude and-revise process changes the nature of the
Parker-one of the most creative and talented work-the "experience,"in Dewey's terms. Al-
improvisers of this century-from art proper, though the core creative processes may be the
then what improvisationalperformancewould same, there are sure to be some differences.
qualify?
This is an unresolvedtension in both Dewey's ii. Problem-finding versus problem-solving. At
and Collingwood's aesthetic theories-what is the beginningof an improvisationalscene, there
theroleof conventions,cliches,andready-mades? is no dramaticframe whatsoever;but within a
How original is original enough, and how much minute or so, many parametersare already es-
can be borrowed?A version of eithertheorythat tablished.At this point, the actorshave createda
relied on a black-and-whitedistinctionwould be problemfor themselves, and they have to spend
brittleand internallyinconsistent.Aesthetic the- the rest of the scene solving that problem. In
ory needs to acknowledge that all art relies on fact, in most creativegenres,the creativeprocess
ready-mades to some extent; that, in fact, we is a constantbalancebetween finding a problem
shouldthinkin termsof a continuumbetween art and solving thatproblem,andthenfinding a new
properand false art-between art that relies on problem during the solving of the last one; Pi-
no conventionswhatsoever,and artthatrelies on casso's film is a good example of this constant
a relatively large number of conventions. This tension.The theoriesof Dewey andCollingwood
continuum parallels that in performance-the maketoo sharpa divisionbetweenthe two, seem-
continuumfrom fully improvised performance, ing to claim thatif any degreeof planningor pre-
through partially embellished performance,to determinationis involved, then it is not real art.
highly ritualizedand scriptedperformance.
iii. Collaboration. The theories of Dewey and
Collingwoodfocus on collaborationbetweenthe

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Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 159

artistand the audience,ratherthancollaboration gests some fruitfulareasfor furtherstudy.While

among a community of artists. Of course, both not prevalentin Westerncultures,cross-cultural
men believe that all members of a community studyindicatesthatperformancegenresemploy-
are artists,and both make explicit claims to this ing elements of improvisationarequite common
effect-that in trulyperceivinga work of art,the worldwide.38The focus in aestheticsandcreativ-
perceiverbecomesjust as muchof an artistas the ity researchon productcreativityis not surpris-
creatorof the work. ing, given that our purposes are often to under-
But this aspect of the theoriesis not sufficient standthe historiesof ourown creativegenres,and
to explain the constant,spontaneous,immediate to identify and encouragecreativityin our own
communicationthat results in the collaborative societies. However,aesthetictheoriesthatarere-
emergenceof an improvisationalperformance.A strictedto product-orienteddomainsmay be Eu-
paintermay have an image of the eventual audi- rocentric, and seem to imply that oral cultures
ence while she works, but this is quite different are somehow less creative,or less respectable,or
from having a fellow actorsaying a line thatyou less deservingof analysis.Theoriesthatclaim to
never would have expected, and using that line be directed at underlyinguniversalsin the psy-
to find new inspirationfor where to go next. chological andsocial processesof creativitymust
The problemis thatneitherDewey norColling- be cognizant of all manifestationsof creativity,
wood has developed an adequatetheoryof com- includingboth productsand performance.
munication. Such a theory would include de- Both Dewey's andCollingwood'stheoriessug-
scriptions of how intersubjectivityis achieved gest that the psychological and social processes
through communication,how group behaviors operating in improvisationalperformanceand
areemergentfrom individualactions, andthe in- productcreativitymay be morethansuperficially
teractionalsemiotic mechanismsof situatedlan- similar.Bothauthorswerewritingin the sametime
guage use. Once such a theory is in place, then periodin whichtheRussianpsychologistVygotsky
perhapsone could make an argumentthatthe na- developed his now-influentialtheories of mind
tureof the communicationbetween a painterand as internalizedsocial interaction(althoughVygot-
the museum-goer is the same as that between sky was not widely availablein English until the
improvisationalactors-and say exactly how it 1960s). Vygotsky'smodel of thoughtas internal-
is similarin some ways, and differentin others. ized interaction39 also suggeststhatthe individual
A sufficient communicationtheory of art would artistor scientist always works with an internal
need to be capableof makingthese distinctions. mental model of the field and domain pro-
cesses.40Dewey andCollingwoodbotharguethat
iv. The role of ready-mades. Collingwood, in par- artistswho do not internalizesuch a modelarenot
ticular, is overly simplistic on this point. Most likely to generateproductsjudged to be creative.
jazz musicianscannotimagine the possibility of In additionto its usefulnessto aesthetictheory,
never playing a phrase or motif that had ever a focus on improvisationhelps us to elaborateon
been played before-that is not the way jazz the claim thateverydaylife is aesthetic-a claim
works. Jazz is heavily motif-based,but thatdoes made by both Dewey and Collingwood. Every-
not diminishthe creativityof the performers. day small talk is, of course, a group improvisa-
In fact, the most overused verbal cliches can tion, perhapsaccountingfor Dewey's manycon-
still requirecreativityin use. In the early 1990s, versation metaphors. We all know that many
a common cliche was to add the single word everyday settings involve improvisationalinter-
"NOT"aftera friend'sutterancethatyou thought action and creativity,includingteaching,collab-
was patentlyfalse. But you cannotinsert"NOT" orating, parenting, and leadership. In spite of
just anywhere;it takes creativityto know when Dewey's strongclaims for the aestheticvalue of
an utterancecan appropriatelybe followed by everydayexperience,neitherpsychologynor aes-
this single word, and we all recognize it (by thetics has had much to say aboutthe creativity
laughing)when therehas been a particularlycre- of everyday life. Many of us have intuitive no-
ative usage of the cliche. Collingwood's distinc- tions thatone teachermay be more creativethan
tion between art and craft cannot be maintained another;but how can we explain creativeteach-
withoutresolutionof this issue. ing by focusing on products?A view of creative
The focus on improvisationalperformancesug- teaching as a set of recordedtechniques-prod-

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160 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt 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
(Greenwich,CT:Ablex, 1997).
creativeteachers,or for thatmattercreativepar- 2. R. Keith Sawyer, "A DevelopmentalModel of Hetero-
ents, leaders, or managers.A teacher or a man- glossic Improvisationin Children'sFantasyPlay,"Sociolog-
ager who sticks to a predeterminedscriptwill be ical Studiesof Children7 (1995); R. Keith Sawyer,"Creativ-
unableto respondeffectively to the uniqueneeds ity as Mediated Action: A Comparisonof Improvisational
of 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-
turewas the "dominantart"of the time, and that mance,"Semiotica 108 (1996).
avant-gardepainting,the "chief victim of litera- 3. TheMysteryof Picasso, 1982, MK2 Diffusion and Ines
ture,"was definedby its "revoltagainstthe dom- Clouzot.
4. Two recent volumes provide a good survey of this re-
inance of literature"-in practice a turn to for-
search:M. A. Runco and R. S. Albert,eds., Theoriesof Cre-
malismandawayfrompropositionalcontent.41In ativity (Newbury Park,CA: Sage Publications, 1990); R. J.
Greenberg'sanalysis, the avant-gardeturnedto Sternberg,ed., The Nature of Creativity(New York:Cam-
music as its model, viewing music as a purely bridge UniversityPress, 1988).
formalartthatwould allow an escape from liter- 5. However, several theater groups use improvisational
processes in rehearsalas a way of generatingscript ideas-
ature.If Greenbergwere writingtoday,he would includingChicago's Second City, and the Britishfilm direc-
perhapsobserve that performanceis the domi- tor Mike Leigh.
nant art of our time. The visual arts have been 6. Figure 1 first appearedin Sawyer,"Creativityas Medi-
heavilyinfluencedby the creativepotentialof per- atedAction."
formance art, resulting in installation-specific 7. Paul Berliner,Thinkingin Jazz: The InfiniteArt of Im-
provisation (University of Chicago Press, 1994); Ingrid
pieces, or multimediaworks thatintegratevideo Monson,Saying Something:Jazz Improvisationand Interac-
images or tapedsounds.In fact, the criticMichael tion (Universityof Chicago Press, 1996); Sawyer,"Improvi-
Kimmelman wrote in 1998, "Art today often sationalCreativity."
seems 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
Couldthese two books by Dewey andColling- Anthropologyand Human Behavior, ed. T. Gladwin and
wood-published fouryearsapartin the 1930s- W. C. Sturtevant(Washington:AnthropologicalSociety of
be partlyresponsiblefor the postwar"cultureof Washington,1962).
spontaneity"-Black Mountain and beat poets, 9. Despite the recent availability of these ethnographies,
most studies of improvisationalperformancehave retaineda
bebop musicians, abstractexpressionists, mod- "compositional"approachto improvisedperformances,often
ern dance, installationart,the emphasison com- using techniquesdevelopedfor the analysisof notatedscores
position as process in poetry and prose writing? or scripts (see note 4 above).
In fact, the very existence of this special issue is 10. Sawyer,"Improvisational Theater";Sawyer,"TheSemi-
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 thataes- 11. Although my presentationhere focuses on verbal im-
thetics will continueto focus on process in addi- provisation,I believe thatthereare interestingparallelswith
musical improvisation, which I discuss in Sawyer, "The
tion to product. Semiotics of Improvisation."
12. Benedetto Croce, "On the Aesthetics of Dewey," The
R. KEITH SAWYER Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism6 (1948): 203-207;
Department of Education John Dewey, "A Comment on the Foregoing Criticisms,"
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 6 (1948):
Washington University 207-209. Also see Stephen C. Pepper,"Some Questions on
St. Louis,Missouri63130-4899 Dewey's Esthetics,"in The Philosophy of John Dewey, ed.
Paul ArthurSchilpp (NorthwesternUniversity Press, 1939);
INTERNET: ksawyer@artsci.wustl.edu George H. Douglas, "A Reconsideration of the Dewey-
Croce Exchange,"The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criti-
1. R. KeithSawyer,"Improvisational Creativity:An Analy- cism 28 (1970): 497-504; Thomas M. Alexander, John
sis of Jazz Performance,"Creativity Research Journal 5 Dewey's Theoryof Art, Experience,and Nature: The Hori-
(1992): 253-263; R. Keith Sawyer,PretendPlay as Improvi- zons of Feeling (SUNY Press, 1987).
sation: Conversationin the Preschool Classroom(Norwood, 13. GeorgeHenryLewes, Problemsof Life and Mind,vol.
NJ: LawrenceErlbaumAssociates, 1997); R. Keith Sawyer, II (London:Trubner& Company,1875), p. 412 passim.

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Sawyer Improvisation and the Creative Process 161

14. G. H. Mead, ThePhilosophyof the Present,ed. Arthur for Dewey, language and music both sharedthe structureof
E. Murphy(Universityof Chicago Press, 1932), p. 2. experience, and music, because of the obvious temporaldi-
15. Ibid., p. 14. mension, was of all the arts the most representativeof his
16. Monroe C. Beardsley, "On the Creationof Art," The aesthetictheory(AE,p. 184).AlthoughDewey does not men-
Journal of Aestheticsand Art Criticism23 (1965): 309. tion improvisationexplicitly (except parentheticallycompar-
17. Clement Greenberg, "Avant-Gardeand Kitsch," in ing "jazzed music" to movies and comic strips, p. 5), his
Perceptionsand Judgments,1939-1944, vol. 1 of The Col- metaphoricdescriptions of experience, often emphasizing
lected Essays and Criticism (University of Chicago Press, rhythm,would seem quite familiarto jazz musicians.For ex-
1986),p. 17, originallypublishedin PartisanReview6 (1939): ample, "all interactions... in the whirlingflux of change are
34-49. rhythms.Thereis ebb andflow ... orderedchange"(AE,p. 16).
18. Ibid., p. 8. 29. Alan Donagan,TheLaterPhilosophyof R. G. Colling-
19. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York:Perigree wood, (New York:Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 130.
Books, 1934), p. 214. This work will be referredto as AE On page 131, Donagan writes that Collingwood did not ac-
with page numbersin the text for all subsequentcitations. cept that all discourse was artuntil afterhe wrote the earlier
20. R. G. Collingwood, The Principles of Art (New York: Essay on Philosophical Method. This was always Croce's
OxfordUniversityPress, 1938), p. 305. This work will be re- point, but Collingwood had earlierrejectedit.
ferredto as PA with page numbersin the text for all subse- 30. Peter G. Ingram,"Art,Language,and Communityin
quent citations. Such interpretationsare reminiscent of Collingwood's Principles of Art," TheJournal of Aesthetics
Marx'sdescriptionsof the relationshipsbetween laboractiv- and Art Criticism27 (1978): 56.
ity and the commodity:the commodity is "congealedlabor" 31. Steinberg,Other Criteria,p. 81
or "frozen activity." Karl Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader 32. Althoughnote, Collingwood seems to contradicthim-
(New York:Norton, 1978), p. 307. In the same way, the art self here:earlierhe says that the work is done "in the head"
productis congealed aesthetic activity. Dewey's early neo- of the artist.
Hegelianismis well known,andthe Croce-Collingwoodaes- 33. T. Owens, Charlie Parker: Techniquesof Improvisa-
thetic also drawson this tradition. tion. (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles,
21. Jacob W. Getzels and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,The 1974). Selected motifs from Owens's dissertationappearin
Creative Vision(New York:Wiley, 1976). several entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (Lon-
22. Greenberg,"Avant-Gardeand Kitsch,"p. 18. don: Macmillan, 1988), including the entries for "Improvi-
23. Leo Steinberg, Other Criteria: Confrontationswith sation"and for "Parker,Charlie."
Twentieth-Century Art (New York:OxfordUniversityPress, 34. Sawyer,"ImprovisationalCreativity."
1972), p. 62. 35. Greenberg'sclassic distinction between avant-garde
24. Daniel Belgrad, The Cultureof Spontaneity.Improvi- and kitsch stands or falls on the same point: kitsch uses as
sationand theArtsin PostwarAmerica(Universityof Chicago "rawmaterial"the "fullymaturedculturaltradition,"borrow-
Press,1998).Belgradincludesin thisaesthetictheBlackMoun- ing "devices, tricks, stratagems,rules of thumb, themes"
tain andbeatpoets, bebop musicians,abstractexpressionists, (Greenberg,"Avant-Gardeand Kitsch,"p. 12).
and moderndance. 36. HowardBecker,Art Worlds(Universityof California
25. Collingwood's "artas language"discussion has not re- Press, 1982).
ceived much attention,even in the recentdefense of Colling- 37. MihalyCsikszentmihalyi,"Society,Culture,andPerson:
wood by Aaron Ridley in this journal ("Not Ideal: Colling- A SystemsView of Creativity,"in TheNatureof Creativity,ed.
wood's Expression Theory,"The Journal of Aesthetics and Sternberg.
Art Criticism55 [1997]: 263-272). But see GarryHagberg, 38. Sawyer,"TheSemiotics of Improvisation."
Art as Language (CornellUniversity Press, 1995). As a lan- 39. Lev S. Vygotsky,Mind in Society, trans.Alex Kozulin
guage researcher,I was impressedby Collingwood's critique (HarvardUniversityPress, 1978); Lev S. Vygotsky,Thought
of his contemporaries-the grammarians(PA,pp. 254-259) and Language, ed. Michael Cole et al., trans.E. Hanfmann
and the logicians (PA, pp. 259-268). Collingwood's argu- and G. Vakar(1934; reprint,MIT Press, 1986).
ments prefigurethe critiques of Chomskianlinguistics that 40. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyiand R. Keith Sawyer, "Cre-
emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in anthropologyand soci- ative Insight:The Social Dimension of a SolitaryMoment,"
olinguistics.And the theory of artpresentedin Book III dis- in TheNatureof Insight, ed. R. J. Sternbergand J. E. David-
plays remarkableoverlap with contemporarysociocultural son (MIT Press, 1995).
theoriesof creativitythatemergedin psychology only in the 41. Clement Greenberg,"Towardsa Newer Laocoon,"in
1980s. Perceptions and Judgments, 1939-1944, p. 28; originally
26. Sawyer, CreatingConversations. publishedin Partisan Review 7 (1940): 296-3 10.
27. HerbertBlumer,SymbolicInteractionism:Perspective 42. Michael Kimmelman, "InstallationArt Moves In,
and Method(EnglewoodCliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1969), Moves On,"New YorkTimes,Sunday,August 9, 1998, sec-
p. 70. tion 2, pp. 1, 32.
28. Although this paperfocuses on verbal improvisation,

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