bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Steps Against Forgetfulness (Six of Them)
Authors: Derbez Alain
Published: March 2016

In this poetical meditation, Alain Derbez articulates links between significant moments in Mexican political and social history, and significant Mexican jazz musicians.
“What I Call a Sound”: Anthony Braxton’s Synaesthetic Ideal and Notations for Improvisers
Authors: Lock Graham
Published: March 2016

In this article I look at some of the visual elements in Anthony Braxton’s music and examine how he uses graphic and symbolic notations in particular to initiate fresh approaches to improvisation.

Drawing on a previously unpublished interview in which he describes his perceptions of sound, I consider the possibility that Braxton may be a synaesthete who has “colour hearing”. However, since this question appears irresolvable, I focus instead on his music, which certainly embodies a “synaesthetic ideal”, in which sound, colour and shape (and other factors) all correspond, and I trace the possible origins of, and reasons for, this ideal in Braxton’s mystical beliefs and in the upsurge of a synaesthetic culture in fin de siècle European Romanticism.

In the second half of the article, I look at some specific examples of Braxton’s alternative notations and, via reference to his Composition Notes and Tri-axium Writings, I explore how his uses of the visual also reflect the values and methodologies he ascribes to the African American creative music tradition, in which “individual presence” (of the participants), as expressed through improvisation, is a crucial factor in performance practice.

Finally, I suggest that this mixing of African American and European Romantic influences exemplifies Braxton’s claim that his music is “trans-idiomatic”; that is, it cannot be categorised within any one musical or ethnic tradition, but rather synthesises elements from all.
Pitch into Time: Notes on Anthony Braxton’s Lower Register
Authors: Broomer Stuart
Published: March 2016

"Pitch into TIme" is a brief note on Anthony Braxton's use of extreme low registers such as tuba ensembles and contra-bass saxophone; a more general fascination with the destructive powers of sub-sonic frequencies; and Ezra Pound's parallel interest in the idea of "the Great Bass," in which rhythms mathematically parallel the frequencies of audible pitches.
“I Dreamed of Other Worlds”: An Interview with Nicole Mitchell
Authors: Waterman Ellen
Published: March 2016

Award-winning Chicago-based flutist Nicole Mitchell has made a huge mark on the international jazz and creative improvised music scenes in recent years, not only for her vibrant improvisations, but for her compositions, her Black Earth Ensemble, and her leadership in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music. This interview explores some of Mitchell’s recent work and probes the strong social ethics of her artistic vision.
Naked Intimacy: Eroticism, Improvisation, and Gender
Authors: Waterman Ellen
Published: March 2016

Critical studies in improvisation seek to understand the potential of certain forms of music to decentre, even transform, entrenched social hierarchies and power structures. Such an ambitious project requires the development of new tools for analysis that, among other things, maintain the ability to critique the utopian tendencies that attend upon all intellectual projects of social reform. Towards that end, in this paper I develop an analytical framework based on a feminist erotics of creative improvisation that is committed to analysing the power dynamics within musical communication, and to recognizing and honouring difference. Eroticism is ontological: it is the realm of our most urgent desires that lead to the transgression of boundaries, ecstatic identification with others, and ultimately a confrontation with the self. I argue that creative improvisation similarly operates at the boundary between discipline and desire: the incessant confrontation with now that is characteristic of both eroticism and improvisation. After first addressing articulations of feminine jouissance in music scholarship that make this work possible, I bring dissonant theories of eroticism by Georges Bataille and Luce Irigaray into a productive tension in order to define a feminist erotics of improvisation. Finally, I employ this framework in analysing an instructive case study, the fascinating music and performance practice of violist Charlotte Hug.
When Did Jazz Go Straight?: a queer question for jazz studies
Authors: Tucker Sherrie
Published: March 2016

Scholars in Jazz Studies who seek to analyze sexuality in meaningful ways struggle against a historical legacy of writing saturated by racist and colonialist desires manifest in primitivism, romanticism, and hyper-sexualization. This baggage does not go away when scholars turn their focus to “hidden histories of queer jazz musicians.” This article argues for another tack, to analyze heterosexual norms as social constructions; to understand intersectional analysis as a network of actively changing and contingent categories, and to attend to dynamics of “queering” and “straightening” in historically and culturally specific moments. This article poses the question—“when did jazz go straight?”—not as a literal question that can be answered once and for all, but as a candidate for inclusion in a new and improved “sexuality” compartment of the Jazz Studies toolkit.
Sounding Out: Pauline Oliveros and Lesbian Musicality
Authors: McMullen Tracy M
Published: March 2016

In her insightful, well-researched and highly readable book, Sounding Out: Pauline Oliveros and Lesbian Musicality, Martha Mockus investigates the significant influence lesbian community and second wave feminism have had on Oliveros's work.
Improvisation and the Unnameable: On Being Instrumental
Authors: Fischlin Daniel
Published: March 2016

This editorial frames the problem of improvisation as both an embodied social practice and an "unthinkable" event-horizon of the possible. If this observation approximates a truth about improvisation, we may well ask, how musical improvisation in the forms it has taken in the last century, aligns with other social practices in which similarly high stakes are in evidence. The editorial addresses how emergent rights discourses (especially in the latter half of the twentieth century) coincide historically with the arrival of radical forms of free improvisation (think John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Albert Ayler). Are there ways of thinking about the aesthetics of improvisation that overlap with re-invigorated notions of civic engagement that move us closer to meaningful forms of social justice and progressive change? Can musical improvisation in its most achieved forms lead to enacting other forms of human potential?
L’improvisation comme processus d’individuation
Authors: Bethune Christian
Published: March 2016

L’attitude philosophique se caractérise par la promotion de l’herméneutique. En effet, avec l’irruption de la philosophie, le sens se conçoit comme une réalité autonome ; au nom de cette autonomie, la pensée occidentale va privilégier l’interprétation au détriment de l’action. Or, si l’improvisation fait problème, c’est qu’elle remet en cause, par sa pratique, la pertinence de cette disjonction, objet pourtant d’un large consensus. Dès lors c’est la genèse du sujet (ou processus d’individuation) qui doit être reconsidérée. Dans la mesure où les « théories de l’art » ont emboîté le pas à la philosophie, ce sont les concepts clés de l’esthétique (œuvre, auteur, création, contemplation etc.) que la pratique de l’improvisation et –singulièrement de l’improvisation jazzistique – vient remettre en cause. Il ne s’agit donc pas de repositionner l’improvisation dans la perspective traditionnelle de l’esthétique, mais plutôt de montrer l’inadéquation des catégories de l’esthétique à comprendre l’improvisation. Dans ce travail critique la philosophie de l’individuation proposée par Gilbert Simondon et sa réinterprétation telle qu’elle nous est proposée par Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari constituent des outils privilégiés.
The control of acoustic intensity during jazz and free improvisation performance
Authors: Dean Roger Thornton , Bailes Freya Anne
Published: March 2016

The paper demonstrates the predominance of a pattern of acoustic intensity change in recorded improvisations in which intensity rises are shorter than falls and in which the rate of intensity change is greater in the rises than in the falls. A wide range of Western improvised music is studied, and the analyses are conducted by measuring intensity in moving windows across each piece. The windows used are 0.04 sec, 0.5 sec, 5 sec and 10 sec, chosen to sample a range of important musical structures such as patterns, phrases and phrase groups. In addition, a comparative analysis using detected rhythmic beats as the window, with slightly variable lengths, is presented. The recurrent pattern is interpreted in terms of a hypothesised Force-Effort-Energy-Loudness-Affect chain, linking performer (or composer) with listeners and with other performers. Partial experimental investigation of this chain in other work has been consistent with the theory in supporting a major role of acoustic intensity in the perception of both musical change and affect. It seems that improvisers share this patterning of acoustic intensity with interpreters of classical music, and composers of electroacoustic music. Thus we suggest that music made without acoustic instruments, that is without the physical intervention of performers providing the energy to activate a sounding instrument, has developed the same pattern because composers recognise its expressive power as a statistical archetype. It remains to be seen whether this statistical feature could have been assimilated from environmental and/or speech sounds.
(Paralyzed on One) Sideman: Disability Studies Meets Jazz, through the Hands of Horace Parlan
Authors: Lubet Alex
Published: March 2016

"(Paralyzed on One) Sideman: Disability Studies Meets Jazz, through the Hands of Horace Parlan." Keynote Address given by Alex Lubet, University of Minnesota at the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, September 9, 2010. Introduction by Sherrie Tucker.
“See clearly … feel deeply”: Improvisation and Transformation: John McLaughlin Interviewed by Daniel Fischlin
Authors: Fischlin Daniel
Published: March 2016

On the cusp of a North American concert tour in late 2010 and hot off the release of To the One, his musical meditation on Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” and his own lifelong spirit-quest, celebrated guitarist John McLaughlin agreed to a CSI request for an interview focusing on improvisation and spirituality. In addition to being a prodigious musician in every respect, McLaughlin has had an exceptional, if not unparalleled, trajectory through the crucible of twentieth and now twenty-first century music.
Improvisations of a Tropical Cartesianism
Authors: Coelho Fred
Published: March 2016

This article presents the contrasting views and theories formulated by European intellectuals such as Claude Lévis-Strauss and Max Bense on the situation of Brazil and Latin America in relation to the main centers of twentieth century criticism. It analyzes improvisation as a fundamental reflection index on the possibilities that third world countries have for negotiating the European Cartesian paradigm. If for some thinkers improvisation and its corollaries are proof that these countries and their people would live forever on the margins or in negative dialectics within the heritage of Enlightenment reason, for others it is precisely there--in the possibility of reinventing reason from hybridisms, strategic appropriations, and re-readings--that the creative and autonomous potentials in the post-colonial world lie. This article is situated precisely in the conflict between reason and the tropics, and looks to bring the debate up to date.
Dancing Samba in Tight Places
Authors: Browning Barbara
Published: March 2016

This article is a short meditation on improvised dance (particularly improvised samba) in tight places, taken both literally and figuratively. Dance theorist Danielle Goldman has argued that while improvised dance often provokes a language of “freedom”, it is actually of greater interest in the ways in which it negotiates constraint--both political and temporal/spatial. This piece considers cramped domestic YouTube performances as examples of such constrained--and potentially resistant--dances.
Versificando (2009) Directed by Pedro Caldas and Produced by 13 Produções
Authors: Sharp Daniel
Published: March 2016

This essay reviews the recent documentary Versificando directed by Pedro Caldas, a film that explores the entanglement of music, speech, improvisation and national identity in Brazil. Versificando focuses on five disparate genres of vocal improvisation currently practiced in São Paulo state: embolada, cantoria de viola, freestyle hip-hop, partido alto samba, and cururu. The essay addresses how the celebratory film attempts to unite these disparate genres, recontextualizing them within a register of national patrimony.
Pablo Fagundes and the Instrumental Music of Brasília
Authors: McCann Bryan
Published: March 2016

Over the past fifteen years, Brasília has nurtured an innovative blend of choro, rock, Northeastern Brazilian dance rhythms, and the experimental music of Hermeto Paschoal. The resulting hybrid genre features extended improvisations, improvisations that occasionally become fixed, repeatable parts of the composition through a process of auditory exchange from one musician to another. The music of harmonica player Pablo Fagundes exemplifies these tendencies.
Improvisation in the Jeitinho Brasileiro
Authors: Borges Fernanda Carlos
Published: March 2016

The Brazilian jeitinho is a practice of improvisation that occurs within modern Brazilian institutions. Jeitinho is when someone is impaired by an unforeseen situation and seeks a solution outside of standard norms. Jeitinho is to find a way out. Nonverbal communication characterizes the possibility of jeitinho, which leads us to believe that Western theory has not fully captured Brazilian “thinking.” This article considers ritualistic and attentive ways of the body, expressed through postures and flexible attitudes, that deserve ethical respect. While resisting modern ideals, the jeitinho points to a Brazilian Utopia.
Improvisation and Staging in Documentary Films
Authors: Ramos Fernão Pessoa
Published: March 2016

Improvisation in documentary cinema may be approached from the concept of “staging” (“encenação”). From a historical perspective, I explore a particular type of staging in documentary action called direct staging (encenação direta). Examples come from contemporary Brazilian films.
Soccer, Improvisation, Clichés: Brazilianness in Dispute
Authors: Vaz Alexandre Fernandez
Published: March 2016

Soccer is an important cultural practice in Brazil around which many competing and complementary narratives about what it is to be “Brazilian” are created. The mythology of the art of soccer, as object turned expressive through the arts—especially literature and fine arts—is validated in a variety of current discourses. Ginga, cunning (malandragem), and improvisation are marks of this movement, and its origins lie in racial mixing (mestiçagem). The movement’s counterpart would be a narrative that, not highlighting improvisation as a cultural strength, values improvisation according to reason and to the pursuit of a goal only seduced by cleverness (malabarismo), if such goal is achieved. If Gilberto Freyre and Nelson Rodrigues are the main representatives of the first narrative, Decio de Almeida Prado is the great connoisseur of the second.
Improvisation in the Brazilian Theater: Inventing Tradition
Authors: Garcia Silvana
Published: March 2016

A panoramic view on the presence and development of improvisation in the context of the Brazilian stage, starting with theater groups from the 60s and 70s and culminating in the solidification of improvisational procedures engendered through the “collaborative process” and the new generation of dance-theater.
Hail the Happy Accident: An Interview with Mike Cooper
Authors: Cooke Grayson
Published: March 2016

Mike Cooper is a consummate musician and improviser, an eclectic artist described by Room40's Lawrence English as “post-everything.” In this interview, my aim is to tease out Mike's approach to improvisation, and especially improvisation with digital tools, and in collaboration with visual artists. As a visualist, my practice is very much driven by digital technologies, by software and hardware, and the possibilities – and difficulties – such equipment provides. Because my work is audio-visual, and is frequently produced in collaboration, I am also always in dialogue with sound artists, and with sound as such, and have therefore evolved a practice of live visuals which is very much focused on how my visuals relate to the sound being produced. With this interview, my aim is to flip this around and find out how a sound artist approaches working with visualists.
Disruptive Dialogics: Improvised Dissonance in Thelonious Monk and Wu-Tang Clan’s 36 Chambers
Authors: Watkins Paul
Published: March 2016

My performative paper makes the suggestion that the act of incorporating Jazz samples into Hip Hop music is a type of disruptive performance that interprets a standard musical form to create new styles, producing hybrid genres of music, such as jazz-rap. I examine the sample as a cultural tactic that enacts what Hip Hop scholar Tricia Rose terms as “flow, layering and ruptures in line.” “Layering” is comparable to what we might term in literary studies as intertextuality. DJs layer sounds literally one on top of the other, creating dialogues among samples, sounds, and words; the layers function as dialogue, commentary, percussive rhythms and counterpoint. Julia Kristeva argues that “any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another. The notion of intertextuality replaces intersubjectivity, and poetic language is read as at least double.” In Hip Hop, visual, physical, musical, and lyrical lines are set in motion and broken abruptly with sharp angular breaks, yet they sustain motion and energy through fluidity and flow. The song “Shame on a Nigga” (from 36 Chambers) samples “Black and Tan Fantasy” as performed by Thelonious Monk. Using sampling as a tactical style that denotes improvisation as a disruption (or break) from classical European tradition to posit African American priorities, many of the songs on 36 Chambers participate in polyphonic layering and center around three central concepts outlined in Tricia Rose’s Black Noise: flow, layering, and ruptures in line. Further, the rupturing effect of incorporating a jazz sample into a Hip Hop production compels us to think about how disruption can function as a model for critical practice that relates to the notion of a globally improvised community.
An Interview with Gerry Hemingway
Authors: Harms Ted
Published: March 2016

The intersection between ‘great player’ and ‘great teacher’ is rather slim. Gerry Hemingway manages comfortably to straddle both areas—his decades of playing and composing in high quality, highly productive, and challenging groups have given him tremendous skills and chops, but his interest and desire to share and educate is like the opening of a vault.

Gerry has been on over one hundred CDs—released by his own quintet or quartet as well as duets and other groups such as BassDrumBone. He first came to critical attention playing in Anthony Braxton’s Quartet from 1983 to 1994 and has had a long and fruitful relationship with numerous American and European performers such as Marilyn Crispell, Ray Anderson, Mark Dresser, Anthony Davis, Ernst Reijseger, and Wolter Wierbos. He has received numerous commissions, including a concerto for percussionist and orchestra and is collaborating with video artist Beth Warshafsky. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000 for his work in composition. He has led workshops for many years and from 2005 to 2009 he was at the New School in New York City teaching music history courses and leading an ensemble. Since 2009 he has been on faculty with the Hochschule Luzern in Switzerland. His latest release is by his Quintet titled Riptide on the Clean Feed label.

Included here is an interview with Gerry Hemingway conducted in September of 2011.
Improvisation as Tool and Intention: Organizational Practices in Laptop Orchestras and Their Effect on Personal Musical Approaches
Authors: Albert Jeff
Published: March 2016

Improvisation is a practice as old as music; the laptop orchestra possibly the newest of ensembles. How can this ancient practice and this ultra-modern ensemble intersect? How does technology affect the way music is organized? How does such musical organization affect the performers?

This paper looks at the variety of improvisational practices in laptop orchestras and ensembles using the repertoire of the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana (of which I am a member) as a starting point. Laptop orchestras have developed out of musical situations rooted in the Western European classical tradition (and its experimental fringe). Although this tradition has lost much of its connection to improvisation, the rise of laptop orchestras has (re)introduced improvisation as a fertile musical practice. This paper will consider how practicing improvisation has affected the musical outlook of members of these ensembles.

Five pieces from the repertoire of the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana (LOLs) serve as case studies for exploring improvisation as an organizational practice. We see how improvisation is used as a tool to facilitate the discovery and development of new instruments, and to address local content in situations where a commonly understood system of notation does not exist. We also see how improvisation becomes the intention of other musical settings. These findings are reinforced by a survey of leaders of other laptop orchestras.

The last century of traditional academic performance studies has not privileged improvisation in a significant way; therefore, many musicians participating in laptop orchestras are new to improvisation, or even biased against it. Interviews with some of these musicians show how their experiences have changed their attitudes and approaches towards improvisation.

Through these perspectives, one can see how technological constraints and aesthetic ideals interact to create a variety of organizational approaches for laptop orchestras, and how these approaches in turn affect the musical lives of the participants. While these ensembles will not likely cause improvisation to become a dominant mode of operation in academic music, they constitute another step in the continued development of improvisation as a respected and sanctioned musical practice.
Nomadism and Ethics in/as Improvised Movement Practices
Authors: Midgelow Vida Lesley
Published: March 2016

Whilst much dance improvisation focuses upon qualities of presence and the importance of being ‘in the moment’, a review of improvisation practices reveals a lexicon that is full of terms suggestive of territories, journeys, flows, connectivities, metamorphosis and transformations.This language, and the dances that generate them, are suggestive of temporal, physical and geographical shifts and embody underlying nomadic concepts. Thereby, drawing on my own experiences of dancing and observing dance artists such as Eva Karczag, Miranda Tufnell, Nancy Stark Smith, William Forsythe and Kirstie Simson, I seek through this article to reveal these inherent nomadisms and consider there implications for ways of being and knowing.
Sipping Water: Reverie and Improvisation
Authors: Ravetz Amanda
Published: March 2016

In 2011, Amanda Ravetz, Anne Douglas, and Kathleen Coussens worked with improvisation in the context of an experimental drawing process. Following workshops with artists Marina Abramović and Bronwyn Platten, the author wrote a score that involved sipping water slowly and drawing over an eight-week period. Drawing, performed for its own sake, produced a space of reverie. Interviews with participants and reflective notes made after work with the score suggest that beyond allowing us to focus on our bodily awareness, the experiment also brought to light ambivalent feelings about our prior training and existing skills. Interpreting these feelings as failure and loss, the paper draw links between reverie, illusion, and disillusionment and Gary Peters’ “ironic model” of improvisation (The Philosophy of Improvisation. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2009. 94-6). However, where Peters avoids accounts of improvisation that focus on relationships between improvisors, the paper argues that reverie opens up a richly paradoxical space between improvisor and improvisor, as well as between improvisor and improvised, producing (shared) moments of rupture in which failure itself can signal new beginnings.
Where You End and I Begin: Cognition and Continuity in Experimental Improvised Music and Dance
Authors: Williams Christopher , Sonderkamp Martin
Published: March 2016

When we improvise together in music and dance, our bodies, instruments, and environments not only interact; they become mutually dependent. A bassist's shoulder shifts, bow slides, instrument rings . . . vibrations bounce off the walls, reach the dancer's inner ear, filling the lungs, lunging toward the bassist's shoulder: these sounds, movements, spaces, and perceptions form a real-time feedback loop that blurs where you end and I begin.

Recent research in embodied and situated cognition by scholars such as Clark and Chalmers (1998), Gallagher (2005, 2007), Hutchins (1995), Noë (2004), and Suchman (2007) provides a theoretical foundation for formalizing this continuity. This literature has inspired us to reconsider how cognitive processes we tacitly know within a specific aesthetic framework are in fact at work throughout everyday life.

In four videos taken from an hour-long studio session recorded in February 2012, we explore these processes once again in our own practice, and offer reflections in the form of program notes that invite the audience to perform these connections themselves.
The Metaphor of 'The Jazz Band': Ethical Issues for Leadership
Authors: Sorensen Nick
Published: March 2016

One of the principal ways in which musical improvisation has impacted upon corporations, businesses, and other institutions is through the metaphor of 'the jazz band.' This paper explores the emergence of this metaphor and examines the significance and meaning that it has generated, as well as the ways that it might help us to understand social organizations. This metaphor has been used to provide insights into leadership, organizations, schools as learning communities, and even the meaning of life itself. While this is not an exhaustive list, these examples demonstrate the wide range of contexts in which this metaphor can be applied.

This paper serves two purposes. First, it provides a critical evaluation of six examples of the jazz band metaphor in order to explore the significance of this metaphor and identify the contribution it has made to our broader understanding of improvisation. Second, it views the use of this metaphor as a leadership strategy, and attempts to identify the ethical implications, for leaders, for appropriating concepts derived from musical improvisation and applying them in non-musical contexts. The paper concludes with the view that we need to go beyond metaphor, and argues for inter-disciplinary research on improvisation within musical and organizational contexts.
The Field of Cultural Production and the Limits of Freedom in Improvisation
Authors: Backstrom Melvin James
Published: March 2016

In this paper I apply Pierre Bourdieu's work on the field of cultural production to understand the limits of freedom in improvisationally-based music practices. While arguing for an awareness of the limitations of Bourdieu's theory, I argue that the strategies of social elevation he points out as so pervasive in cultural practices complicate assumptions of an anti-orthodox essence of "free improvisation." In order to therefore hold on to such a possibility, greater attention needs to be paid to the ways in which audiences are themselves constitutive of musical experiences, and to how this can be best realized by improvising performers, a process I begin by examining the practices of Sun Ra and the Grateful Dead.
R. Keith Sawyer
Authors: Laver An Interview by Mark
Published: March 2016

This interview with Dr. Keith Sawyer, the Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, explores the possibilities for creativity and diversity in the corporate workplace. Such collaborative innovation debunks the traditional structure of the corporation. Interviewer Dr. Mark Laver guides the conversation through the hurdles that pose an obstruction to this optimistic outlook. Drs. Sawyer and Laver work through issues such as the skeptical observation that corporations may capitalize upon creativity to reify their self-serving structures and the phallogocentric conception of genius that creativity entails.
"An Invitation for Disaster"—Embracing the 'Double Failure' of Improvisation
Authors: Hill Stephanie
Published: March 2016

In this paper I consider the representational and relational aesthetics of 'improvisational moments,' a term I am using to encompass both the moments of encounter between improvisers and audience members and the art that arises from these encounters. These moments cannot help but be evaluated—both relationally and representationally—by all stakeholders. From such an evaluation, a judgement of whether or not these improvisational moments have succeeded or failed almost certainly arises. An examination of failure in improvisation is of interest due to the likelihood that many (if not all) improvising artists have encountered improvisational moments which they have judged failures. Because there are two areas of expectation by which improvisational moments can be judged, those being in terms of representational and relational aesthetic standards, improvisational moments can be said to 'doubly fail.' This paper demonstrates that ultimately this 'double failure' can be 'doubly generative' of new creative products.
Raynaud's Phenomenon in a Slap Bass Player: A Case Report
Authors: Jepsen Jørgen R , Simonsen Jane A
Published: March 2016

OBJECTIVE: Secondary Raynaud’s phenomenon is a frequent condition related to occupational exposure to local vibration but has not been described in musicians. This study aims to describe cold-induced blanching of the right second and (in particular) third digits in a 67-year-old
double bass player following decades of cumulative repetitive blunt trauma to the fingers from slapping the strings. METHODS: A physical examination was undertaken and systolic blood pressure measured before and after cold provocation. RESULTS: At 10ÅãC the brachial systolic blood
pressure was 156 mm Hg while blood pressure was immeasurable at the finger level, corresponding to a finger/brachial index of 0% of the second and third fingers. CONCLUSION: This is the first reported case of objectively verified, playing-related Raynaud’s phenomenon in a musician.
High-Resolution Studies of Polymer Flooding in Heterogeneous Layered Reservoirs
Authors: Shotton Mark , Stephen Karl , Giddins Marie Ann
Published: March 2016

The mechanisms of enhanced oil recovery by polymer flooding in stratified systems were investigated using reservoir simulation at a range of model resolutions. The objectives of this work were to understand the effects of grid refinement on the simulated flow behavior and, in light of this, to examine the validity of some seminal coarse-scale reservoir simulation studies reported in the literature.

Simplified one- and two-dimensional models, in which aqueous phase viscosity varied as a function of polymer concentration, were used to simulate the behavior of polymer floods and waterfloods in homogeneous and layered systems. Advanced visualization techniques enabled a detailed analysis of localized crossflow between layers. This provided a clearer understanding of flow behavior than was available in previously reported studies, in which localized flow patterns were inferred from the aggregate system responses obtained from reservoir simulation and laboratory coreflood experiments.

In common with the literature, results indicate that crossflow between layers is of central importance to the polymer flood recovery mechanism in stratified systems where the layers are in vertical communication. In addition to improving the fractional flow properties of the flood, the polymer crossflow enhanced the vertical volumetric sweep efficiency.

A one-dimensional polymer flood model demonstrated the mobilization of formation water, which was initially at irreducible saturation, to produce a water bank with the saturation profile of a shock front ahead of the injected polymer solution. Simulation results were analyzed in the context of Buckley-Leverett displacement theory. The variation in polymer concentration between injector and producer wells produced a fractional flow curve which, at intermediate concentrations, deviated from the characteristic "S-shaped" curve of a waterflood, and instead exhibited a linear profile of progressively increasing viscosity, consistent with the disperse polymer flood front that was observed behind the formation water shock front.

The high-resolution studies revealed additional features of the recovery that were not observed at the coarse scale, including a secondary oil bank, formed by oil crossflow ahead of the polymer slug, and fingering of chase water into the rear of the slug. The variation of grid resolution was observed to produce substantial changes in the distribution of incremental oil production between layers, but to have a more limited impact on cumulative production. In contrast to previous findings, the crossflow behavior of the polymer flood model was found to be highly sensitive to vertical, as well as horizontal, grid refinement. This demonstrates the importance of grid resolution to predictions of oil in place and to the forecast distribution of production between intervals in the well.
Application of Nanoparticles to Improve the Performance of Microwave Assisted Gravity Drainage (MWAGD) as a Thermal Oil Recovery Method
Authors: Al-Farsi Hajir , Pourafshary Peyman , Al-Maamari Rashid S.
Published: March 2016

There are many heavy oil reservoirs around the world, representing about 70% of the total oil resources. Primary heavy oil recovery is low, so enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are needed. Reducing the oil viscosity is a main mechanism of the recovery process, so thermal EOR methods are used. Conventional and unconventional thermal EOR methods face many challenges in recovering heavy oil, some of which can be overcome by nanotechnology.

In this study, nanoparticles were used to enhance the heavy oil recovery by the Microwave Assisted Gravity Drainage (MWAGD) Process. Two types of metal oxide nanoparticles were used: gamma alumina (γ-Al2O3) and titanium (IV) oxide (TiO2), at four different concentrations. Besides studying the effect of nanoparticles on the recovery, the effect of water saturation on the oil recovery and the influence of nanoparticles on the emulsion viscosity and the thermal conductivity of distilled water were also investigated. The tests were done by using a heavy oil sample of 19 API and glass beads as a porous medium with an average porosity of 22%.

The results showed that, in general, as the water saturation increases, the oil recovery from the MWAGD process rises, with optimum recovery occurring at a water saturation of 30%. In addition, the tests showed that recovery using microwave heating is higher than that with conventional heating. Also, each type of nanoparticle (γ-Al2O3 and TiO2) has its own trend in affecting either the emulsion viscosity or the water thermal conductivity due to variations in the physical properties of each nanoparticle such as shape and size. Al2O3 and TiO2 nanoparticles have the greatest effect on the oil recovery at low concentrations of 0.1 and 0.05 wt.%, respectively, during the MWAGD process.

The tests showed that nanotechnology can be used to improve the performance and to overcome challenges facing thermal EOR methods, especially the unconventional methods.
Oil Recovery Enhancement in Carbonate Reservoirs Via Low Saline Water Flooding in Presence of Low Concentration Active Ions; A Case Study
Authors: Mohsenzadeh A. , Pourafshary P. , Al-Wahaibi Y.
Published: March 2016

Different research reported that the main mechanism for low salinity water flooding in carbonate reservoir is multi ion exchange (MIE) which occurs when the concentration of active ions such as sulfate and calcium is high and the temperature of the reservoir is in the range of 90-110°C. In many cases, due to the reservoir condition and availability of the injection brine, meeting criteria for an effective ion exchange mechanism is not possible. In this study, the feasibility of LSW flooding for oil recovery enhancement from carbonated reservoir at low concentration of active ions was investigated.

Rock and fluid samples from an Omani oilfield were used for the experiments. Different experiments were conducted to study the rock/brine/oil interactions during the LSW process and the recovery improvement. Core flooding experiments were conducted to study the impact of different dilutions on the tertiary recovery. To investigate the effect of salinity changes on fluid-fluid interactions, IFT measurements between crude oil and different brine salinities were carried out at reservoir temperature. Also, effects of LSW (different dilutions) on the wettability alteration were examined by performing contact angle measurement tests as well as spontaneous imbibition tests.

The oil recovery results by core flooding experiments showed a noticeable improvement by switching to the diluted brines. Results of wettability study showed that, due to the lack of sufficient active ions and relatively low reservoir temperature, wettability alteration towards more water wet condition did not occur in this case. But, Interfacial tension measurements showed that brine dilutions reduced oil/brine IFT appreciably. Therefore, in this special case, observations proved that the IFT reduction is the main mechanism contributing oil recovery enhancement. Hence, low salinity water in carbonate reservoirs is recommended for similar cases even when the criteria of MIE mechanism are not met.
Case Study on a New Approach for Exploiting Heavy Oil Reservoirs with Shale Barriers
Authors: Yongrong Gao , Erpeng Guo , Jian Luo , Youwei Jiang , Hongyuan Wang , Yao Wei
Published: March 2016

Existence of shale barriers in heavy oil reservoirs is detrimental to the implementation of the EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) process with gravity drainage mechanism. Unfortunately, there is abundance of such reservoirs with shale barriers due to sedimentary conditions and reservoir heterogeneities. SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) pilot tests have been carried out in these reservoirs in China where the extensive distribution of shale barriers results in poor performance.

Taking the advantage of vertical wells in exploitation of thin reservoirs and reservoir with shale barriers, a new development approach combining gravity drainage and flooding process in heavy oil reservoirs with shale barriers was proposed. Laboratory experiment was carried out to verify its effectivity. Then the results of field application in two well groups were compared and discussed.

The results show that high recovery efficiency can be achieved in heavy oil reservoirs with shale barriers when combining the effect of vertical injectors and horizontal producers with the proposed approach. Laboratory results showed that when the shale barrier is not continuous, this approach is possible to combine flooding process and drainage process together. The recovery factor of the whole process with shale barriers can be higher than 50.5% (16% higher comparing to old approaches) with an average SOR of 3.5 in lab experiments. And with the 2 year field operation history data, the steam swept volume increased rapidly after application of this approach. The production rate was enhanced by 30%, and the SOR decreased by 28%.

The results of this paper are of great significance in that it has shown that heavy oil reservoirs with shale barriers can also be effectively exploited with the proposed approach in this paper. Also this approach can be used as complementary method for EOR in dual-horizontal well SAGD process.
Application of Fiber Optics in EOR Trials
Authors: Irvine-Fortescue Jamie , Battashi Fathiya , Rubalcava Daniel
Published: March 2016

In this paper, recent EOR field trials are discussed to demonstrate the value of in-well fiber optic (FO) applications. The trials are in a field in Oman that has been considered for an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) development. Polymer Flood and Steam Injection have been proposed as alternative EOR methods and both are being studied. A recent polymer injectivity test and steam trial were conducted in order to de-risk uncertainties in a full field development and this paper presents the application of FO in these EOR trials to help meet these objectives.

The fiber optic approach is viewed as an alternative technology to production logging and it provides the option of real time acquisition. In one area of the field, a shut-in well was converted to a polymer injection well and utilized for a single well injection test (SWIT). The test was carried out for six months to quantify the inflow profiles and injectivity to the reservoir under matrix conditions. For the steam trial in another area of the field, three producers and one injector with FO were utilized to demonstrate the feasibility of a horizontal well steam development and to evaluate the requirement and effectiveness of injection conformance.

FO analysis from both trials concluded that the Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) combination can be successfully used for injection conformance profiling. DTS/DAS measurements were taken during the course of the polymer injection test. These indicated that conformance was incomplete from the onset and deteriorated during the course of the test, with a large proportion of fluids in-fluxing into the reservoir through a narrow section at the toe of the well. One of the main objectives from the steam trial was to measure and manage conformance along the horizontal steam injector. Use of FO helped demonstrate the importance of managing conformance in order to achieve satisfactory sweep efficiency.

This paper explains how these new technologies play a key role in reducing the uncertainties in reservoir performance in EOR developments. The combination of FO (DTS and DAS) data sets allowed the interpretation of data gathered to complement each other and provide more comprehensive conclusions.
Challenges and Learnings from Developing High Pressure Sour Reservoirs in Southern Oman by EOR MGI
Authors: Al-Hadhrami Abdullah , Schulz Ralf , Alawi Hamoud , D'Amours Mubarak Maskari , Barwani Shihab , Jabri Abdullah , Proot Michael
Published: March 2016

The commissioning of new Production Station (Station-H) in April 2012 marks the completion of the Phase 2AB project in the southern area of the Sultanate of Oman. The asset's liquid production has increased by 3 fold and contributes to more than 15% of Oman's production. This project is the world's largest Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) with Sour Miscible Gas Injection (MGI) integrating oil and gas field developments. Sour gas is processed through a state-of-the-art processing facility for sweetening and re-injecting gas under MGI to increase oil recovery up to 50%, (i.e. 6x increase over primary RF).

The timeline from discovery of the field-Z in 2002 to commissioning of Station-H in 2012 is top quartile for mega-EOR projects of this type, considering the challenges: deep, high pressure, and sour fluid. Despite the delayed start-up, the first on-stream milestone is considered a commendable achievement. Building a facility to handle the extreme mixture of high pressure, sour corrosive fluids and gas is a technical step-out for PDO.

One of the key challenges was maintaining the station's production despite 2 of the 3 production separators were deemed unsuitable due to compromised internal coating exposing the base material which was not NACE compliant. Therefore, there was no assurance against Sulphur Stress Corrosion Cracking (SSCC) in the event of any contact with sour fluids resulting in 40% capacity loss. A major shut-down of 4 months was recommended to complete several engineering activities (this could be shortened to 62 days by optimisation). Separator replacement was achieved safely resulting in reliable operation at design capacity after restart. The Turnaround was executed without any HSE incidents achieving GOAL ZERO, in total adherence to PDO HSSE standards.

As part of a phased development prior to the 2AB project, several fields were produced beginning in 2004 through Early Development Facilities (EDF) to a nearby Gathering station, capturing of critical information while producing significant early oil. This resulted in sufficient revenues to fund for 2AB and more developments in the area. Within less than 3 years since commission of Station-H, the 2AB project has already achieved return on the investment. The EOR project life will continue to deliver value to Oman for the next 30+ years.

The new station provides the infrastructure for long term development of the area and a number of follow-on projects, which will make use of these facilities: e.g. the already commissioned Phase 3 project in 2013 and Phase 4 development currently in execution and expected to be on-stream by 2019. This work will outline some of the key challenges on the phase 2AB project and how lessons learned were taken onboard to facilitate project delivery of the extended larger EOR/MGI development for follow-up phases and in similarly challenging projects in PDO.
Assessing Oil Saturation from Single Well Chemical Tracer Tests by Assisted History Matching
Authors: Huseby Olaf , Zarruk Gustavo A. , Callegaro Chiara , Bartosek Martin
Published: March 2016

Single-well chemical tracer test (SWCTT) is a unique method that can be used to measure in-situ remaining oil saturation in the proximity of a well. The method has been used extensively to quantify remaining reserves in oil fields worldwide. It is also frequently used to measure the effect of different EOR techniques. Using a SWCTT-EOR-SWCTT sequence, saturation is established by an initial SWCTT, followed by an EOR-technique, and saturation is determined with the final SWCTT. The potential in-situ gain in oil production provided by the EOR can then be assessed by comparing pre- and post-EOR saturations.

In ideal cases, a SWCTT provides tracer curves that can be interpreted by means of simplified numerical or analytical models. In many cases, a variation in reservoir properties, pressure differences or reservoir drift complicates the tracer transport enough that a proper reservoir simulation model must be set up and solved to interpret the results of a SWCTT. Such models are usually complex enough that assisted history matching is required to optimize the parameters required to describe the physics of the problem.

In this paper we describe how state-of-the-art parameter estimation can be used to optimize a SWCTT simulation and demonstrate the work-flow using SWCTT data from a recent EOR test in West Africa. The work-flow is generic and can easily be adapted to any reservoir and tracer simulation tools that handle the reactive tracer transport required for SWCTT-modelling. We demonstrate that assisted parameter estimation is an effective tool to improve the interpretation of SWCTT results and provides significantly better and accurate remaining oil saturation from single well chemical tracer tests.