Performing Imagination. The Aesthetics of Improvisation

Imagination and improvisation share the abductive method of their making. The way imagination works can be labelled, to certain degrees and in some respects, improvisational. Improvisation needs imagination for the organisation of the process as well as for being creative. In particular, both organisational and creative imagination, in art and other human practices, proceed in an abductive way and in the production and appreciation of artworks the way imagination is engaged has improvisational traits. This is due, in turn, to the fact that both improvisation in everyday practices and artistic improvisation work abductively : in other words, organisational and creative imagination play essential roles in improvisational practices. So, just like imagination has, per se, improvisational traits, improvisation may be conceived as imagination performed in real-time. The way improvisers perform anticipatory and creative imagination on the spot is both for producers and for audiences one of the most intense pleasures of art experience.