Tragic Experiments Numbers 1 to N: Ecologies, Technologies and Improvisational Forms of Life in the Plague Years

This paper describes a series of improvisational musical actions that the authors have initiated under the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the enforced isolation we have experienced. We name our actions ‘Tragic Experiments’. Using a variety of networking technologies we have improvised together from our homes in Belfast and North Tyneside, UK. Rather than attempt to simulate co-present improvisation, we have sought out musical, technical, performative and documentary practices which are specific to the circumstances we find ourselves in. Here, we describe how we formulated ‘Tragic Experiment’ as an orienting concept, the various actions we have performed and how two festival performances developed out of our practice. We close with some speculative remarks concerning our extended ecology of improvisation in the plague years and how we are developing some philosophical orientations which may provide useful provocations for others.