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The Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of LIfe
A MASTERFUL BOOK ABOUT BREATHING LIFE INTO ART AND ART INTO LIFE
“Stephen Nachmanovitch’s The Art of Is is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages, The Art of Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.”
— Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
“Stephen Nachmanovitch’s The Art of Is is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages, The Art of Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.”
— Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 31, 2021
This is a much more profound book than I had anticipated based on the cover description. It's a well-written exploration of "flow" and inspiration that applies not just to art, but almost anything we do--running outside, playing with a baby, talking to friends, or teaching a class. It is an iterative process of improvisation. This semester, I was back in the classroom (with masks) after a year and a half on zoom where I felt like I just could not teach well. Reading this book while being back just made sense of the difference and why it feels so much different to respond to students and teach with them in the room than at a computer screen. They learn better too because even when they're not talking or even paying attention in a classroom, I can see it and respond. Those senses that I have developed for teaching over the years do not work on zoom.
January 31, 2022
Though this book was so thoughtful - I was expecting stories of artists and creators, but it ended up being more about an alternate way of living. Conscious that how I'm framing the ideas below makes the book sound like a "how-to" self-help book, know that I'm layering on the book's implications for me, you might find other hooks. Some ideas that resonated:
- "We are verbs, not things": Reminded me of Why Fish Don't Exist -- the idea that mentally bucketing people, things and ideas into low-resolution buckets makes you miss so much. This especially applies to people - we aren't just our professions, nationalities or degrees. Helps to both see others and ourselves as a medley of people as a repository of _verbs_, as dynamic entities that are evolving and changing...
- The role of mindfulness: Didn't expect this bit - had always lusted after mindfulness to calm anxiety, but love how he describes it as the foundation of improv and creativity...
- Finger-kissing: The idea that you can't obsess over past mistakes and to forgive "errors" and move on quickly. So critical for something like a live musical ensemble, miss a note and obsess over it, you'll miss every note after...
- Positive feedback and child walking: This was hilarious and powerful. Reproducing the paragraph below, but something think I need to do more deliberately: most people don't need tactical input as they work through their travels, what they often need instead is a show of faith and deep belief, they'll figure out what the right next step is.
- Knowing your defaults: Reminded me of This is Water (which I now listen to every month); we all have default settings and ways of deriving meaning from experience. Be aware of it, it at least gives you the option of choosing how you want to see the world
- Free association: Spoke loudly to me; it's the only reason I find utility in reading widely, having diverse friends, even trivia competitions -- we are the sum the ideas we consume, it's in our interest to have a deeper, wider repository to draw from (think this class I took in undergrad on the TRIZ framework has affected me more deeply than I understood).
Funnily, the activity I most thought about while reading this book is conversation. It requires all the facets of improvisation Nachmanovitch talks about. In a sense, conversation is a group of people with their sets of priors riffing to collectively create a shared story. Our individual job in a conversation is to help create the most entertaining, riveting story; this ends up as much about finding and bringing out the most interesting and charismatic part of the other individuals in the group as it is about being articulate/entertaining ourselves. As N says "your job as an improviser is not to come up with clever lines but to make your partner’s shitty line sound good."
Highly recommend!
-----
"One of the finest teachers of improvisational performance I have known is Al Wunder, an old friend from Berkeley who now runs the Theatre of the Ordinary in Melbourne, Australia. Wunder wrote an influential paper called “Positive Feedback Only,” reprinted in The Wonder of Improvisation. He points us to an experience that many of us have had, being in the room with a one-year-old baby who is walking for the first time: When the adults realized what was happening, they all sat in a circle. The young performer teetered and wobbled from the outstretched arms of one adult to another — ooo’s, ahs, smiles, cheers and hand claps all around the circle. There was a huge, beaming smile on the child’s face. Not a single adult thought of saying, “That was lovely (insert your own name), now if you could just hold your back a little straighter and lift your knees higher, you will walk even better the next time.” Why not? The child certainly was not walking well. Yet we, the adults, knew that the child would continue to develop, on their own, the skills of walking, of running, skipping, hopping and other forms of exciting locomotion."
- "We are verbs, not things": Reminded me of Why Fish Don't Exist -- the idea that mentally bucketing people, things and ideas into low-resolution buckets makes you miss so much. This especially applies to people - we aren't just our professions, nationalities or degrees. Helps to both see others and ourselves as a medley of people as a repository of _verbs_, as dynamic entities that are evolving and changing...
- The role of mindfulness: Didn't expect this bit - had always lusted after mindfulness to calm anxiety, but love how he describes it as the foundation of improv and creativity...
- Finger-kissing: The idea that you can't obsess over past mistakes and to forgive "errors" and move on quickly. So critical for something like a live musical ensemble, miss a note and obsess over it, you'll miss every note after...
- Positive feedback and child walking: This was hilarious and powerful. Reproducing the paragraph below, but something think I need to do more deliberately: most people don't need tactical input as they work through their travels, what they often need instead is a show of faith and deep belief, they'll figure out what the right next step is.
- Knowing your defaults: Reminded me of This is Water (which I now listen to every month); we all have default settings and ways of deriving meaning from experience. Be aware of it, it at least gives you the option of choosing how you want to see the world
- Free association: Spoke loudly to me; it's the only reason I find utility in reading widely, having diverse friends, even trivia competitions -- we are the sum the ideas we consume, it's in our interest to have a deeper, wider repository to draw from (think this class I took in undergrad on the TRIZ framework has affected me more deeply than I understood).
Funnily, the activity I most thought about while reading this book is conversation. It requires all the facets of improvisation Nachmanovitch talks about. In a sense, conversation is a group of people with their sets of priors riffing to collectively create a shared story. Our individual job in a conversation is to help create the most entertaining, riveting story; this ends up as much about finding and bringing out the most interesting and charismatic part of the other individuals in the group as it is about being articulate/entertaining ourselves. As N says "your job as an improviser is not to come up with clever lines but to make your partner’s shitty line sound good."
Highly recommend!
-----
"One of the finest teachers of improvisational performance I have known is Al Wunder, an old friend from Berkeley who now runs the Theatre of the Ordinary in Melbourne, Australia. Wunder wrote an influential paper called “Positive Feedback Only,” reprinted in The Wonder of Improvisation. He points us to an experience that many of us have had, being in the room with a one-year-old baby who is walking for the first time: When the adults realized what was happening, they all sat in a circle. The young performer teetered and wobbled from the outstretched arms of one adult to another — ooo’s, ahs, smiles, cheers and hand claps all around the circle. There was a huge, beaming smile on the child’s face. Not a single adult thought of saying, “That was lovely (insert your own name), now if you could just hold your back a little straighter and lift your knees higher, you will walk even better the next time.” Why not? The child certainly was not walking well. Yet we, the adults, knew that the child would continue to develop, on their own, the skills of walking, of running, skipping, hopping and other forms of exciting locomotion."
May 24, 2021
I suggest starting with Nachmanovitch's 1986 book, Free Play, before heading into this one. Free Play changed my life, and I don't even play the violin. (It was mentioned at Suzuki camp, where I spent a few days many years ago, with my young son). This beautiful book extends and deepens the author's thinking from his first book. There's a reason totalitarians come for the artists first. (Apparently, Hitler was obsessed with destroying Shostakovich.) That thing that artists do--that perhaps you yourself do--is the part of you that can never be governed. And even if you are not an artist, the place in you to which art can speak? That is the place you are most alive. An intensely hopeful book.
August 15, 2021
Each chapter is a jewel. One of the books that call for rereading.
April 6, 2021
More a Bible or Reference Book than just a Book of Essays
I put this book on my shelf for quick inspiration. It’s one of those you can just open to any page and get a moment for reflection. It may be aimed at writers, speakers or actors, but I found it relevant to just about any area of Life. We”re all performers now, particularly in a World dominated by Social Media. We’re constantly reacting to the bombardment of events, statements or other stimuli. We need to be fluent in The Art of Is. This work is a great Training Manual. Four Stars.
I put this book on my shelf for quick inspiration. It’s one of those you can just open to any page and get a moment for reflection. It may be aimed at writers, speakers or actors, but I found it relevant to just about any area of Life. We”re all performers now, particularly in a World dominated by Social Media. We’re constantly reacting to the bombardment of events, statements or other stimuli. We need to be fluent in The Art of Is. This work is a great Training Manual. Four Stars.
November 24, 2021
This book was a very pleasant surprise. and intellectual and aesthetic delight It is grounded in much scholarship and resonated with me as an educator and poet. I will definitely be reading it again!
April 16, 2019
“I see improvising as a tool for investigating reality. What is this reality that we are investigating? It is the reality of interbeing, the opposite of thingness. This mutuality is the engine that powers our natural improvisational activity. I once asked Gregory Bateson, ‘What is beauty?’ He answered, ‘Recognition of the pattern which connects.’”
“Learning to be a better improviser goes hand in hand with learning to be a better human being, because both are contingent on communicating with others, remaining open to surprise.”
“Learning to be a better improviser goes hand in hand with learning to be a better human being, because both are contingent on communicating with others, remaining open to surprise.”
February 5, 2021
Super interesting book on the art of improvisation. I read a book not that long ago called improv which was completely about improvisation and it really reminded me of a lot of the skills and tricks and techniques that this book talks about. It's essentially about going with the flow and letting your subconscious take control. Here are some of the best bits from the book. Some amazing bits here:
On August 28 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during the climax of the March on Washington for jobs and freedom the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was sitting on the platform they have framed Martin Luther King . Doctor King had begun reading his prepared address. 7 paragraphs into the speech Jackson broke in and shouted: tell them about the dream Martin. Tell them about the dream!. King pushed aside his notes and began to improvise.
Listening to political or corporate spokespeople we often have an intuitive sense that they are lying even when they are happening to be telling the truth . As they read their manicured scripts we sense the stilted and contrived tone because we are used to spontaneous, interactive, face to face communication.
In the theaters act of 1843 the British parliament criminalised improvisation. All performances had to pass through the filter of state censorship and theater managers were required to submit an advance copy of the script to the Lord chamberlain's office. Unscripted theater could not be predicted and controlled. This law was eventually overturned but not until 1968.
Language Gregory told me, can be a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Nouns break the world and how experience apart, into things. Naming and manipulating names and symbols has enabled the lion share of our advanced civilization. But in our love of and reliance on language, we tend to confuse the name with the thing itself. Bateson often quoted the mathematician and philosopher Alfred korzybski who famously said: the map is not the territory. The menu is not the meal. And as one of our artists drew it “ceci n’est pas une pipe”: Rene Magritte.
The technique is a very simple one. It disclaims the use of any special aids, even of notetaking and simply consists in making no effort to concentrate the attention on anything in particular and in maintaining in regards to all that one hears the same measure of calm quiet attentiveness : of evenly hovering attention. For as soon as attention is deliberately concentrated one begins to select from the material before 1. This is just what must not be done.
To remain present long enough without knowing the answer: to take the time to closely examine how parts of the machine or connected: to respect its complexity: to receive details and relationships that are not immediately apparent: can itself be a lubricant. To remain open eyed and open minded while still retaining access to the technical information we have accumulated through our years of learning, is one of those balancing acts that comes under the heading of wisdom.
When the adults realized what was happening, they all sat in a circle. The young performer teetered and wobbled from the outstretched arms of 1 adult to another. Who's ours smiles cheers and hand claps all around the circle. There was a huge beaming smile on the child's face. Not a single adult thought of saying: that was lovely Jamie, now if you could just hold your back a little straighter and lift your knees a little higher you'll walk even better the next time. Why not? The child certainly was not walking well. Yet we the adults knew that the child would continue to develop on their own the skills of walking of running skipping hopping in other forms of exciting locomotion.
In teaching we are in blakes words: striving with systems to deliver individuals from those systems.
This is not a matter of letting students come on their own to conclusion that we could have told them, but rather leading to a conclusion that we could not have told them, the only they could have arrived at. My job as a teacher is not to lead but to nurture and to encourage students to have the gumption to do what is theirs to do . Maintaining a nurturing environment in which people feel safe to explore and experiment: that is the essence of education. We try to fill up empty space and time afraid to let them stay empty.
As we sat in our afternoon meditation, someone coughed. What was amazing and just as silly as the refrigerator was how beautiful and resident that cough sounded. When we're going about our business and someone coughs it's just noise, a distraction: but against the background of silent concentration we shared, back off was a marvelous sound that expanded into the universe.
As a teenager Freud was influenced by the essays of Ludwig borne especially in essay called the art of becoming an original writer in three days. The author suggests: take a stack of paper and write. Write everything that goes through your mind for three consecutive days with neither hesitation no hypocrisy. Write down what you think of yourself, of the Turkish war, of Goethe,of a criminal case, of the last judgment, of your boss, and when the three days are over you will be amazed at what novel and startling thoughts have spilled out of you. This prescription of spontaneous prose pre figuring beaudelaire, Brieton, Ginsburg another beatnics, is not automatic writing, which is supposedly dictation from spirits but dictation from ourselves: our own spirit. Right, noodle on musical instruments or toys, doodle on this piece of paper until it gives up its secrets. You can refine it later. The output may not be something you want to publicly share but once unblocked you can start your journey in earnest.
In the Odyssey the goddess Athena appears to young telemachus disguised as an older man and named mentor, his father's friend, to guide and help him.
Django Reinhardt played the century's most wild gypsy jazz guitar with two fingers paralyzed. Jordan Scott's poetry foregrounds his lifelong stutter and makes it the centerpiece of his work blurt. One of the greatest living drummers, Evelyn glennie is deaf. I myself play with a broken arm that has never fully healed. Obstacles are offers.
Arthur koessler captured the importance of interlocking Contacts with the word bisociation : the explosive little pop that happens when 2 frames of reference that had previously seemed unconnected come together.
eno speaks of the taking the sound out of the realm of the perfect into the realm of the real.
Gregory bateson said that the major problems of the world arise from the difference between the way people think and the way nature thinks.
This is one of the differences between art and entertainment. Entertainment is an essential element of a life that is attractive and pleasurable. But when it's over, it's over. Art suggest something beyond itself. We cannot be finished with it.
In the church in halberstadt in Germany, and organ was constructed for the purpose of playing John cages piece as slow as possible. The performance began in 2001 with a rest that lasted 17 months. But first chord was played until 2005 code changes and rests will transition every few years when attendance affix weights to the new keys. The peace will end 639 years later on September the 5th 2640.
totalitarian states cannot be easily maintained when you have a profusion of art, when you have free speech, when men and women's voices are heard as equal: precisely because these states rely on people buying into the idea that they are part of a machine, soldiers workers consumers child bearers but not people.
Stalin spent an enormous amount of energy suppressing shostakovic , among other composers. This doesn't seem to make sense. Why did the dictator of an enormous continent, with vast armies at his command controlling gigantic industrial economies, busy himself with the composer of operas and chamber music? Because artists powerful stop because dictators are afraid of the power within people that art touches and makes conscious.
But we step into the role of ancestor the moment we begin to speak, to sing, to draw, to invent because we are transmitting towards the future.
Any object intensely regarded, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods. James Joyce, Ulysses.
On August 28 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during the climax of the March on Washington for jobs and freedom the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was sitting on the platform they have framed Martin Luther King . Doctor King had begun reading his prepared address. 7 paragraphs into the speech Jackson broke in and shouted: tell them about the dream Martin. Tell them about the dream!. King pushed aside his notes and began to improvise.
Listening to political or corporate spokespeople we often have an intuitive sense that they are lying even when they are happening to be telling the truth . As they read their manicured scripts we sense the stilted and contrived tone because we are used to spontaneous, interactive, face to face communication.
In the theaters act of 1843 the British parliament criminalised improvisation. All performances had to pass through the filter of state censorship and theater managers were required to submit an advance copy of the script to the Lord chamberlain's office. Unscripted theater could not be predicted and controlled. This law was eventually overturned but not until 1968.
Language Gregory told me, can be a wonderful servant but a terrible master. Nouns break the world and how experience apart, into things. Naming and manipulating names and symbols has enabled the lion share of our advanced civilization. But in our love of and reliance on language, we tend to confuse the name with the thing itself. Bateson often quoted the mathematician and philosopher Alfred korzybski who famously said: the map is not the territory. The menu is not the meal. And as one of our artists drew it “ceci n’est pas une pipe”: Rene Magritte.
The technique is a very simple one. It disclaims the use of any special aids, even of notetaking and simply consists in making no effort to concentrate the attention on anything in particular and in maintaining in regards to all that one hears the same measure of calm quiet attentiveness : of evenly hovering attention. For as soon as attention is deliberately concentrated one begins to select from the material before 1. This is just what must not be done.
To remain present long enough without knowing the answer: to take the time to closely examine how parts of the machine or connected: to respect its complexity: to receive details and relationships that are not immediately apparent: can itself be a lubricant. To remain open eyed and open minded while still retaining access to the technical information we have accumulated through our years of learning, is one of those balancing acts that comes under the heading of wisdom.
When the adults realized what was happening, they all sat in a circle. The young performer teetered and wobbled from the outstretched arms of 1 adult to another. Who's ours smiles cheers and hand claps all around the circle. There was a huge beaming smile on the child's face. Not a single adult thought of saying: that was lovely Jamie, now if you could just hold your back a little straighter and lift your knees a little higher you'll walk even better the next time. Why not? The child certainly was not walking well. Yet we the adults knew that the child would continue to develop on their own the skills of walking of running skipping hopping in other forms of exciting locomotion.
In teaching we are in blakes words: striving with systems to deliver individuals from those systems.
This is not a matter of letting students come on their own to conclusion that we could have told them, but rather leading to a conclusion that we could not have told them, the only they could have arrived at. My job as a teacher is not to lead but to nurture and to encourage students to have the gumption to do what is theirs to do . Maintaining a nurturing environment in which people feel safe to explore and experiment: that is the essence of education. We try to fill up empty space and time afraid to let them stay empty.
As we sat in our afternoon meditation, someone coughed. What was amazing and just as silly as the refrigerator was how beautiful and resident that cough sounded. When we're going about our business and someone coughs it's just noise, a distraction: but against the background of silent concentration we shared, back off was a marvelous sound that expanded into the universe.
As a teenager Freud was influenced by the essays of Ludwig borne especially in essay called the art of becoming an original writer in three days. The author suggests: take a stack of paper and write. Write everything that goes through your mind for three consecutive days with neither hesitation no hypocrisy. Write down what you think of yourself, of the Turkish war, of Goethe,of a criminal case, of the last judgment, of your boss, and when the three days are over you will be amazed at what novel and startling thoughts have spilled out of you. This prescription of spontaneous prose pre figuring beaudelaire, Brieton, Ginsburg another beatnics, is not automatic writing, which is supposedly dictation from spirits but dictation from ourselves: our own spirit. Right, noodle on musical instruments or toys, doodle on this piece of paper until it gives up its secrets. You can refine it later. The output may not be something you want to publicly share but once unblocked you can start your journey in earnest.
In the Odyssey the goddess Athena appears to young telemachus disguised as an older man and named mentor, his father's friend, to guide and help him.
Django Reinhardt played the century's most wild gypsy jazz guitar with two fingers paralyzed. Jordan Scott's poetry foregrounds his lifelong stutter and makes it the centerpiece of his work blurt. One of the greatest living drummers, Evelyn glennie is deaf. I myself play with a broken arm that has never fully healed. Obstacles are offers.
Arthur koessler captured the importance of interlocking Contacts with the word bisociation : the explosive little pop that happens when 2 frames of reference that had previously seemed unconnected come together.
eno speaks of the taking the sound out of the realm of the perfect into the realm of the real.
Gregory bateson said that the major problems of the world arise from the difference between the way people think and the way nature thinks.
This is one of the differences between art and entertainment. Entertainment is an essential element of a life that is attractive and pleasurable. But when it's over, it's over. Art suggest something beyond itself. We cannot be finished with it.
In the church in halberstadt in Germany, and organ was constructed for the purpose of playing John cages piece as slow as possible. The performance began in 2001 with a rest that lasted 17 months. But first chord was played until 2005 code changes and rests will transition every few years when attendance affix weights to the new keys. The peace will end 639 years later on September the 5th 2640.
totalitarian states cannot be easily maintained when you have a profusion of art, when you have free speech, when men and women's voices are heard as equal: precisely because these states rely on people buying into the idea that they are part of a machine, soldiers workers consumers child bearers but not people.
Stalin spent an enormous amount of energy suppressing shostakovic , among other composers. This doesn't seem to make sense. Why did the dictator of an enormous continent, with vast armies at his command controlling gigantic industrial economies, busy himself with the composer of operas and chamber music? Because artists powerful stop because dictators are afraid of the power within people that art touches and makes conscious.
But we step into the role of ancestor the moment we begin to speak, to sing, to draw, to invent because we are transmitting towards the future.
Any object intensely regarded, may be a gate of access to the incorruptible eon of the gods. James Joyce, Ulysses.
February 23, 2024
The most compelling book I've read this year [together with the mushrooms one] A must read what ever your relationship with creativity is.
April 29, 2019
Endorsements:
"Stephen Nachmanovitch’s The Art of Is is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages, The Art of Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.”
— Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
“In an age of standardized packages and constrained choices, Stephen Nachmanovitch gives us The Art of Is, a refreshing encounter with how to improvise and be fully alive in the face of deadening habits of mind. The author is a musician and a teacher who has an uncanny ability to see and listen and help others do likewise. We are verbs, not nouns, he tells us, because we are ever in motion — open to change and surprise. Like musicians who improvise together, human beings can break barriers: teaching, playing, creating, and being present to one another. In clear prose, Nachmanovitch effortlessly shows how people discover — in themselves — the sheer power to relate and endlessly adapt.”
— Jerry Brown, governor of California 1975–1982 and 2011–2018
“A beautiful book, full of power, full of life, written from the deep experience of an artist and a wise person.”
— Joan Halifax, abbot, Upaya Zen Center
“The Art of Is IS real ART! It is so lucid, grand, kind, easygoing, and deeply helpful, I could not stop reading it, even in time I did not ‘have’! It is full of surprises, gems, and open-ended inspirations. It starts from the moment of Mahalia Jackson’s startling outburst to MLK Jr., catapulting his “I have a dream” speech into the improvisation of a soaring liberation of the spirit that it was. Stephen Nachmanovitch takes us with him on his life-walk of love in music all over the world. He delivers us to a place of new vitality in our own lives where we more fully recognize the harmonies at hand. This is a lovely guidebook for our own journeys, helping us appreciate ourselves and each other as the precious human beings endowed with liberty and opportunity that we are!”
— Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, co-founder of Tibet House
“Stephen Nachmanovitch brings forty years of practicing improv to the page and offers a rich trove, hard-won and long-pondered. In graceful prose that reflects not only his talking the talk but walking the walk, he explores the art of being present. You’ll finish the book enriched by his experiences studying under Zen masters and his mentor, the great polymath Gregory Bateson, and teaching aspiring improvisers all over the world.”
— Randy Fertel, author of A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation
“Stephen Nachmanovitch beautifully reveals a world of communication and co-creation that is both new and ancient. To play in this realm of improvisation is to recognize the tenderness with which interdependence knows aloneness, and the way silence defines sound. The stories he tells show us that the complexity and simplicity of life itself exist in our interrelationships. These findings are laid out in this book with grace, humor, and careful articulation. Nachmanovitch makes it clear that the art of being human now is acutely tied into an improvisational way of being: making sense of ourselves, each other, and the natural world in ways that find new offerings within old patterns. It is to feel anew.”
— Nora Bateson, filmmaker, International Bateson Institute
“The Art of Is gives us a precious philosophical prescription for engaging the creative opportunities of our life as the greatest work of art.”
— Alex Grey, artist
"Stephen Nachmanovitch’s The Art of Is is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages, The Art of Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.”
— Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
“In an age of standardized packages and constrained choices, Stephen Nachmanovitch gives us The Art of Is, a refreshing encounter with how to improvise and be fully alive in the face of deadening habits of mind. The author is a musician and a teacher who has an uncanny ability to see and listen and help others do likewise. We are verbs, not nouns, he tells us, because we are ever in motion — open to change and surprise. Like musicians who improvise together, human beings can break barriers: teaching, playing, creating, and being present to one another. In clear prose, Nachmanovitch effortlessly shows how people discover — in themselves — the sheer power to relate and endlessly adapt.”
— Jerry Brown, governor of California 1975–1982 and 2011–2018
“A beautiful book, full of power, full of life, written from the deep experience of an artist and a wise person.”
— Joan Halifax, abbot, Upaya Zen Center
“The Art of Is IS real ART! It is so lucid, grand, kind, easygoing, and deeply helpful, I could not stop reading it, even in time I did not ‘have’! It is full of surprises, gems, and open-ended inspirations. It starts from the moment of Mahalia Jackson’s startling outburst to MLK Jr., catapulting his “I have a dream” speech into the improvisation of a soaring liberation of the spirit that it was. Stephen Nachmanovitch takes us with him on his life-walk of love in music all over the world. He delivers us to a place of new vitality in our own lives where we more fully recognize the harmonies at hand. This is a lovely guidebook for our own journeys, helping us appreciate ourselves and each other as the precious human beings endowed with liberty and opportunity that we are!”
— Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, co-founder of Tibet House
“Stephen Nachmanovitch brings forty years of practicing improv to the page and offers a rich trove, hard-won and long-pondered. In graceful prose that reflects not only his talking the talk but walking the walk, he explores the art of being present. You’ll finish the book enriched by his experiences studying under Zen masters and his mentor, the great polymath Gregory Bateson, and teaching aspiring improvisers all over the world.”
— Randy Fertel, author of A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation
“Stephen Nachmanovitch beautifully reveals a world of communication and co-creation that is both new and ancient. To play in this realm of improvisation is to recognize the tenderness with which interdependence knows aloneness, and the way silence defines sound. The stories he tells show us that the complexity and simplicity of life itself exist in our interrelationships. These findings are laid out in this book with grace, humor, and careful articulation. Nachmanovitch makes it clear that the art of being human now is acutely tied into an improvisational way of being: making sense of ourselves, each other, and the natural world in ways that find new offerings within old patterns. It is to feel anew.”
— Nora Bateson, filmmaker, International Bateson Institute
“The Art of Is gives us a precious philosophical prescription for engaging the creative opportunities of our life as the greatest work of art.”
— Alex Grey, artist
June 1, 2019
"The Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life" by Stephen Nachmanovitch is not the book I thought it was going to be. (OK, I'm relieved.) Here's what it's not: It's not a philosophy tome rehashing treasured theories and encouraging new ways of focusing.
Here's a brief description of what this book is about: improvisation. How to manage when your plan doesn't work. How to create a plan that could work, but loading the "possible" side by paying attention and interacting with others.
Think about the times you improvise: at dinner with a friend, when a conversation takes an unpleasant turn. When you are working with a client and an unusual, but interesting idea comes up. It may affect the scope, but the idea may bring a better result.
Nachmanovitch is a musician, and improvisation has traveled through him and with him, teaching him how to entertain and teach while still discovering. He shows us how we can improvise, too. Story-telling is an important part of this book, and much of what Nachmanovitch tell us comes in the shape of stories that contain analogies of life and metaphors for living.
The book is divided into three sections: "Interplay" (the bedtime story section will be familiar to any parent who has made up stories combining three pigs, James Bond and Odysseus--or any random characters called from memory to mesmerize children to sleep), "Thinking as Nature Thinks" and "Art and Power."
You'll learn improvisation through a story about Shotaku, a 14th century widow who entered a monastery. One night, walking back from a retreat, she was attacked. What saved her was remaining entirely in the present. She used a rolled piece of paper to convince her attacker she would stab his eyes out, and her conviction convinced him.
You'll learn about Herbert Zipper, a privileged musician and intellectual, who was shipped off to Dachau because he was Jewish. There he first recited poetry, helping others remember the poems they knew, because poems connect people and offer refuge. Zipper then created an "orchestra" from pieces of junk and wire, and composed songs for the prisoners to play and sing. "To say that music or poetry kept them alive is an exaggeration," Nachmanovitch writes. "Survival was to a great extent random. But those who survived in this context did so without the mind-eating bitterness that might so easily have dominated the rest of their lives. With the help of their art, they remained sane."
I loved the natural history section, but anyone who has read my blog know that would be a favorite. The stories are fascinating and make sense out to today's world. This book can be summarized by the John Muir quote on page 105. "When you try to pick out anything by itself, you find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
The book is profound. It's not a zip-through-it read, it is a whole meal for your mind and heart.
Here's a brief description of what this book is about: improvisation. How to manage when your plan doesn't work. How to create a plan that could work, but loading the "possible" side by paying attention and interacting with others.
Think about the times you improvise: at dinner with a friend, when a conversation takes an unpleasant turn. When you are working with a client and an unusual, but interesting idea comes up. It may affect the scope, but the idea may bring a better result.
Nachmanovitch is a musician, and improvisation has traveled through him and with him, teaching him how to entertain and teach while still discovering. He shows us how we can improvise, too. Story-telling is an important part of this book, and much of what Nachmanovitch tell us comes in the shape of stories that contain analogies of life and metaphors for living.
The book is divided into three sections: "Interplay" (the bedtime story section will be familiar to any parent who has made up stories combining three pigs, James Bond and Odysseus--or any random characters called from memory to mesmerize children to sleep), "Thinking as Nature Thinks" and "Art and Power."
You'll learn improvisation through a story about Shotaku, a 14th century widow who entered a monastery. One night, walking back from a retreat, she was attacked. What saved her was remaining entirely in the present. She used a rolled piece of paper to convince her attacker she would stab his eyes out, and her conviction convinced him.
You'll learn about Herbert Zipper, a privileged musician and intellectual, who was shipped off to Dachau because he was Jewish. There he first recited poetry, helping others remember the poems they knew, because poems connect people and offer refuge. Zipper then created an "orchestra" from pieces of junk and wire, and composed songs for the prisoners to play and sing. "To say that music or poetry kept them alive is an exaggeration," Nachmanovitch writes. "Survival was to a great extent random. But those who survived in this context did so without the mind-eating bitterness that might so easily have dominated the rest of their lives. With the help of their art, they remained sane."
I loved the natural history section, but anyone who has read my blog know that would be a favorite. The stories are fascinating and make sense out to today's world. This book can be summarized by the John Muir quote on page 105. "When you try to pick out anything by itself, you find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
The book is profound. It's not a zip-through-it read, it is a whole meal for your mind and heart.
September 23, 2021
Playful, upbeat and filled with examples from many cultures to address the role of art as a balancing act between knowing what to prepare and what to leave to the moment. Creativity is a practice-- and one in company that confirms our interdependence.
I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of "imps" -- how we cling to how we think we want life to be, vs. what it is: impermanent, imperfect, sometimes seemingly impossible -- and that wonderful saving "imp" of improvisation... the often unexpected serendipity we never could have imagined... If you try to "improve the world" by setting things into stone, as John Cage says, "you will only make matters worse". Art lives on in an after flavor... as Basho remarks... "the temple bell is done but the sound keeps ringing out of the flowers"!
Bound by our expectations of how life is supposed to be all seriously interfere with "what is" --
reminders such as "Dukka" and "wabi sabi" , authors such as Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, "In Praise of Shadows", examples of music, like "As Slow as Possible" which started in 2001 with a note followed by a rest of 17 months... the first chord arriving in 2005 played on an organ in Halberstadt, Germany... with an end forecasted on my birthday, (Sept 5) but in 2,640...
Art arises from relationship... a balancing of articulations of patterns that interconnect... understanding the value of thinking as nature thinks, examining how our thinking can produce negative "whacks" instead of "finger-kissing" as we explore one "mistake" (i.e. invitation!) after another...
Perfect timing to visit my sister who totally understands the power of scat singing, the importance of a "lingua Ignota" ... anoretic sentience... the power of imagination to allow walking so silently at night, that the bottoms of out feet becomes ears. (Pauline Oliveros).
I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of "imps" -- how we cling to how we think we want life to be, vs. what it is: impermanent, imperfect, sometimes seemingly impossible -- and that wonderful saving "imp" of improvisation... the often unexpected serendipity we never could have imagined... If you try to "improve the world" by setting things into stone, as John Cage says, "you will only make matters worse". Art lives on in an after flavor... as Basho remarks... "the temple bell is done but the sound keeps ringing out of the flowers"!
Bound by our expectations of how life is supposed to be all seriously interfere with "what is" --
reminders such as "Dukka" and "wabi sabi" , authors such as Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, "In Praise of Shadows", examples of music, like "As Slow as Possible" which started in 2001 with a note followed by a rest of 17 months... the first chord arriving in 2005 played on an organ in Halberstadt, Germany... with an end forecasted on my birthday, (Sept 5) but in 2,640...
Art arises from relationship... a balancing of articulations of patterns that interconnect... understanding the value of thinking as nature thinks, examining how our thinking can produce negative "whacks" instead of "finger-kissing" as we explore one "mistake" (i.e. invitation!) after another...
Perfect timing to visit my sister who totally understands the power of scat singing, the importance of a "lingua Ignota" ... anoretic sentience... the power of imagination to allow walking so silently at night, that the bottoms of out feet becomes ears. (Pauline Oliveros).
October 2, 2019
Only started somewhat enjoying the book in the last third.
Nevertheless, lines that I liked:
To guide improvisation means giving people permission to do what they already know how to do.
This was not practical, it was not economical. But it was the expression in discovery of life, and without that, what is there, mere survival?
There's no reason to be concerned with originality. Your particular expression of what has gone into you and is now coming out is always already yours: you are the origin.
Art is power - it puts people in contact with their own personhood.
We don't need to make something flawless or even brilliant, just interesting
Nevertheless, lines that I liked:
To guide improvisation means giving people permission to do what they already know how to do.
This was not practical, it was not economical. But it was the expression in discovery of life, and without that, what is there, mere survival?
There's no reason to be concerned with originality. Your particular expression of what has gone into you and is now coming out is always already yours: you are the origin.
Art is power - it puts people in contact with their own personhood.
We don't need to make something flawless or even brilliant, just interesting
November 18, 2021
Fascinating philosophical exploration of improvisation in Art and Music. From Tibetan monks and mandala to musicians and poets, Steven Nachmanovitch explores the “space between the notes”. Wonderful collection of stories and examples of creativity, even creativity through suffering art maintaining sanity in concentration camps, music as a means of maintaining continuity and individuality of freedom of expression.
This succinct work of art an outstanding look and inspiration, especially full of ideas and insights that might strike many notes and resonate for anyone engaged in opening of growing minds, or restoring older ones , through the beauty of art and music.
This succinct work of art an outstanding look and inspiration, especially full of ideas and insights that might strike many notes and resonate for anyone engaged in opening of growing minds, or restoring older ones , through the beauty of art and music.
July 23, 2019
I read this slow, and online, writing poetry in the margins as reader response. Thanks to my friend, Terry, for recommending this and for setting up a shared reading of the book. What I loved was the many angles to see the possibilities of art, and how art is fundamental to humanity. Lots of neat insights here.
April 1, 2024
This book felt like those rare amazing late night conversations with a new person that you wish never ended, about topics that effortlessly flow one into the other, each person feeling inspired and left with a sense of wonder and awe for everything and nothing at the same time. I guess Stephen Nachmanovitch has this effect on me. I will definitely be coming to this book again soon.
December 21, 2020
Nothing new that I hadn't learned from previous study, but this was an excellent refresher that came at the right time in my life.
Some of the anecdotal examples seem like they could've been condensed or gotten to the point quicker.
Some of the anecdotal examples seem like they could've been condensed or gotten to the point quicker.
March 6, 2021
This is an okay book with many things I’ve heard before. Till the last two chapters which really touched my inner spirit.
If I had just read the final two chapters I do not think they would have been as meaningful.
So I’d recommend this book on creativity in your everyday life.
If I had just read the final two chapters I do not think they would have been as meaningful.
So I’d recommend this book on creativity in your everyday life.
May 29, 2024
Stephen takes the reader on a journey across mindfulness, life, acceptance, improvisation and play!
Reminding us to listen, accept, appreciate, act and adapt to the world and each other.
Highly recommend this book.
Reminding us to listen, accept, appreciate, act and adapt to the world and each other.
Highly recommend this book.
July 16, 2024
I love his book Free Play. I found some of this book repetitive but very much worth reading for the final section "Art and Power," on the place of art to keep us sane in times of chaos and seeming meaninglessness.
March 3, 2025
*3.5 rounded up to 4*
I really enjoyed the main points of the book and found it very useful for reframing certain things, but found myself skimming a lot through repetitive parts and what I thought was a decent amount of fluff. Still great though!
I really enjoyed the main points of the book and found it very useful for reframing certain things, but found myself skimming a lot through repetitive parts and what I thought was a decent amount of fluff. Still great though!
November 4, 2019
Good ideas. I preferred the first book ‘Free play’. The last 2 chapters part are not so good. Could be skipped.
February 19, 2020
Part genius, part boring, I might not be the intended audience.
September 27, 2021
One to re-read again I feel as many great quotes and info hidden in here, wide ranging from Buddhism to Blake to Miles Davis. An interesting subject to bring into ones life 🎶
November 13, 2021
Good listen. It just did not wow me
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2022
Boring at times, but overall worth the read.
March 29, 2022
Interesting ideas expose in this book, a little bit technical for talking about improvisation, I didn’t felt the book made a concrete point. Maybe a second read would be worth it.
August 18, 2022
This was a fascinating and well written manuscript. An ode to a life, well lived and probably one of the more truthful meanings of art.
A must read.
A must read.
December 6, 2022
Interesting book, but goes on for awhile saying some of the same things in different ways.
December 7, 2022
This is an abundance of one-liners and anecdotes under the guise of a book.
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