By Diogo Monzo, author of Distributed Free Improvisation: A Cultural Affective-Semiotic Perspective on Creativity

Musical improvisation can be understood as an expressive phenomenon in which creative processes and affective dynamics are meaningfully intertwined. Each sonic event generated by improvisation, grounded in an expanded and sensitive listening, inscribes itself in the intersubjective space as a social, dialogical, and affective manifestation. These expressions, characterized by non-verbalizable sound dialogues, form a privileged field for the analysis of extralinguistic semiotic processes. From this perspective, improvisation is configured as a pleromatizing mechanism, capable of generating complex signs independent of the mediation of verbal language. Therefore, the affective-semiotic cultural approach to creativity finds in musical improvisation one of its most suitable contexts for theoretical development and deepening.

Affectivity is established as a fundamental dimension of the improvised artistic experience. Even when contained or silent, the improvised act carries an affective charge that sustains and guides it, transcending the notion of form to manifest as bodily and intersubjective resonance. Far from being a secondary element, affection occupies the core of the improvised creative action, modulating perception and activating subjectivation processes deeply linked to the human condition. In this sensory-relational flow, the improvised musical performance transcends its aesthetic dimension to operate as a device for listening and collective co-creation.

Arising from the intersection of corporalities, temporalities, and affections, the improvised creative process acts as a dynamic mechanism that fosters the emergence of the unpredictable and new. It offers the arts and social sciences a valuable epistemological framework to rethink the present and envision future possibilities. As an open space of perceptual possibilities, musical improvisation encourages experimenting with alternative modes of attention, presence, and listening, extending beyond the scope of sound into relational practices, meaningful dynamics, and collective imagination processes mediated by dialogical interactions. From this perspective, I would like to propose two modes of listening, rooted in a cultural affective-semiotic approach to creativity, that challenge us to rethink how we exist, coexist, and create. These listening modes deepen our understanding of human development, urging us to reinvent interpersonal relationships and creative processes through sensitive openness to the unpredictable and affective dialogue.

A listening open to the unpredictable

In a world in constant transformation, marked by uncertainties and ruptures, cultivating an open and receptive listening to the unpredictable is not just a desirable skill but an essential condition for human development. The future, by definition, is not a stable territory but an open field, traversed by multiple and unpredictable forces. Trying to shape it based solely on what we already know limits its possibilities. A sensitive listening to the unexpected allows us to embrace the new without immediate resistance, recognize the creative potential of the unknown, and respond with imagination to the changes that pass through us. Instead of holding on to old maps, this listening invites us to walk on ground still in formation, attentive, permeable, and willing to learn. It is within this type of listening that an ethics of the future is inscribed: a bet on the invention of more human, relational, and responsive ways of inhabiting the world.

Listening in presence and affection

Every creative process is, in its essence, dialogical and collective, even when it emerges from individual solitude, being constituted by dynamics of alterity and intersubjectivity. To create is to listen, and to listen, with presence and affection, is to open oneself to the other without retreating from differences. In this process, listening becomes a channel of transformation, where the encounter with plurality points the way to imagining more just and plural ways of being in the world. To be creative, within this horizon, is not only to propose the new but to sustain the listening of what is still nameless. It is through this affective listening that it becomes possible to rethink the present and sketch out futures in which diversity does not fragment but intertwines.

Musical improvisation invites a rethinking of creativity from an affective-semiotic cultural approach, where affections are not mere byproducts of creative activity but central forces in meaning construction. From this view, human development is seen as deeply intertwined with affective and relational dimensions, where affections modulate, regulate, and guide the dialogical interactions that sustain meaning emergence in creative processes. Facing the challenges of social sciences, an open listening to the unpredictable, marked by affective presence, can help us deal with everything that cannot be predicted and what is yet to come–a becoming–(future) in function of creation, while positioning (present) itself on the unstable boundary between what is known (past) and what needs to be advanced. This perspective can contribute to new theoretical and methodological propositions, opening paths for more sensitive, responsive, and integrated practices to address contemporary challenges in social sciences, the arts, the humanities, and the studies of Possibilities. In this way, creativity becomes a dynamic force shaping both individual and collective dimensions of meaning-making.

Diogo Monzo, a musician deeply in love with art and the magic of creation, holds a Ph.D. in Music, with an emphasis on the Theory and Practice of Interpretation, from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Brazil. He recently completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute of Psychology, University of Brasília, Brazil. Diogo is also a recording artist with a career in popular music and musical improvisation.