Symposium Session 3

Abstracts

Sarah Raine – Improvising Across Boundaries: Exploring gender and inclusive practice through collaborative research

This 20 minute talk will report on the emerging findings from a four-year collaborative and coproduced research project – Improvising Across Boundaries (funded by Research Ireland) – focusing on gendered experience, gender identity through improvisational practice in music and sound, and inclusive practice. Working collaboratively with fourteen Musician Partners and IMC as our industry partner, this project maps the current state of and issues for improvised music across the island of Ireland, with a particular focus on the experiences of women and gender minority improvisers from all genres, practices, and traditions.

In dialogue with the focus of Sonorities Festival, this talk will consider the potential futures of improvised music in Ireland, offering thoughts on inclusive (educator, musician, promoter, funder) action and contributing a range of questions relating to improvisatory practices and spaces for music. Through this talk, I will advocate for listening, for creating space for each other, for trust and safety, for kindness, and for collective action.

Shane Byrne, Niall O’Connor & Simon Cullen – Improvising Futures Through Play: Flourishing in the SoundLab Studio

This presentation explores Sound Lab, an eight-week research initiative designed to bridge the gap between academic instruction and real-world studio experience for undergraduate sound engineering students. Funded through a university-based initiative, the program paired students with local artists in a working studio environment, where students were paid to serve as recording engineers on live projects.

The core aim was to develop technical proficiency, microphone technique, DAW workflow, and session management, whilst simultaneously building crucial interpersonal and professional skills such as client communication, teamwork, and time management. Students engaged with unfamiliar collaborators, handled feedback under pressure, and navigated studio dynamics in real time.

Drawing on current research in experiential and work-integrated learning, this talk will reflect on how immersive, authentic contexts like SoundLab contribute to increased self-efficacy, professional identity, and career readiness. Participant feedback, program outcomes, and future directions will be shared, including reflections on how to integrate such initiatives sustainably within university structures.

This presentation will be of particular interest to educators, program designers, and industry partners looking to expand beyond the traditional classroom to provide transformative, skill-building experiences for emerging professionals in the audio and creative arts.

Gabriela Waclawska – Listening to the Machine: Human–AI Co-Improvisation and the Futures of Musical Collaboration

How do we improvise with machines, and what does that reveal about listening, trust, and collaboration? This presentation shares findings from performer-led studies with Somax2, a real-time interactive system developed at IRCAM, explored through my own voice, piano, violin, double bass, and percussion. The research highlights both the affordances and limits of AI as a co-improviser: moments of coherence and dialogue, but also disconnection and mechanical repetition.

Rather than asking whether AI can play “like a human,” the work investigates how improvisation with machines opens new relational and ethical questions of agency, authorship, and perception, suggesting futures where improvisation becomes a way to navigate uncertainty and to imagine new forms of creative partnership.

Phanuel Antwi – TBC

Delivered in collaboration with IF 2026, with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada