Joint improvisation as interaction ritual

Abstract

Improvised joint action feels good, sometimes even great, as the participants experience highly rewarding “group flows”. In this chapter, I analyze the emergence of the affective phenomenology of improvised jazz and theater with the sociological interaction ritual theory of Randall Collins, enriched with phenomenological and enactivist theories on human sociality. I first distinguish three main kinds of affective experiences in joint improvisation: positive feelings about the activity itself; feelings of togetherness among the performers; and feelings of transcendence. Then I argue that the notion of group flow cannot explain the eliciting conditions, internal dynamics, and long-term effects of these experiences. Instead, I suggest that a philosophically enriched interaction ritual theory offers a more plausible account of the elements and processes from which the affective experiences of joint improvisation build up.