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How A Man’s Thirst For Revenge Turns Into An Accidental Education In Freedom-And How Every Silence Hums With Unfinished Music.  \nby  \nBob Wiseman  \nA Thesis  \npresented to  \nThe University of Guelph  \nIn partial fulfilment of requirements  \nfor the degree of  \nDoctor of Philosophy  \nin  \nCritical Studies in Improvisation  \nGuelph, Ontario, Canada  \n©Bob Wiseman, June, 2026  \nAbstract  \nComposing The Unknowable; Art, Revenge And The Meaning Of The Black Square. How AMan’s Thirst For Revenge Turns Into An Accidental Education In Freedom – And How Every  \nSilence Hums With Unfinished Music.  \nBob Wiseman Advisor(s): Daniel Fischlin, Elaine Chang  \nMervyn Horgan, Chris Cran  \nUniversity of Guelph, 2026  \nThe Black Square is a research-creation novel. It explores the collision of art, trauma, and the improvisational nature of life itself. The story follows Alphonse Lesage, a pianist and aspiring improviser who believes he can orchestrate meaning through control of his art, his relationships, and ultimately justice. Years after his childhood friend Jube Rosenfield dies by suicide, Alphonse directs his grief and rage toward Jube’s brother, Ray, a corrupt lawyer whose deception helped bury the truth. Convinced that vengeance will restore moral order, Alphonse embarks upon a campaign of public reckoning, only to have his plans collapse when Ray dies unexpectedly, exposing the illusion that endings can be arranged. Through encounters with improvisers such as Stanley Cowell, John Oswald and his growing engagement with John Cage’sideas of silence, chance, and indeterminacy, Alphonse gradually confronts the possibility that life resists composition. His arc reflects the novel’s central research inquiry: how improvisational practice might function not just as musical method, but as ontology for understanding identity and trauma.  \nThe Black Square enacts these questions through improvisational writing methods derived from Wiseman's own practice-based research, developed through stream-ofconsciousness writing, a commonplace journal, iterative revision, live performance, and archival collage. The novel treats composition itself as an improvisational process. Polyphonic voices, historical artifacts, and timeline shifts are incorporated as methodological enactments of improvisational principles. The narrative emerges through interruption, and recurrence rather than predetermined design.  \nThe novel’s title refers both to the Kazimir Malevich painting “The Black Square” and to Alphonse’s realization improvisation is not the absence of order, but life unfolding beyond the limits of intention. It blurs fiction, philosophical inquiry, and autobiography. The Black Square occupies the space between performance and confession. Positioning both revenge and authorship as fantasies of mastery, and in their collapse locates the central insight of the project:  \nthat art, like existence, is not composed in advance but entered responsively, as an improvisation already underway.  \nAcknowledgements  \nThis whole thing would have gone off the rails without Dr. Daniel Fischlin, who managed to be a steady bandleader when I was hurrying up or slowing down. Daniel has wisdom, no doubt, from years of teaching and reflection. He has the gift of seeing both the forest and the broken guitar left behind by whoever last camped there. His insights reminded me that scholarship is maybe just another jam session. Thanks also to Dr. Mervyn Horgan, Dr. Elaine Chang, and Chris Cran, who sound like an experimental jazz group. Their feedback was incisive and funny when it needed to be. I offer sincerest thanks. I also extend gratitude to Dr. Karen Houle, whose encouragement and confidence in my abilities were instrumental in affirming my sense of welcome within academia. Her letter of support for my Master’s application not only facilitated my entry into graduate study but set me on the path that led to ","cbCair0H3Su8aZ8o","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCair0H3Su8aZ8o","pdf",1012968,119,"English","# Abstract\n# Acknowledgements\n# Table of Contents\n# Novel\n# Framing Document","[{\"question\":\"What is the core focus of the novel in this thesis?\",\"answer\":\"The thesis centers on a research-creation novel where art, trauma, and improvisation collide, and where improvisational practice becomes a way to understand identity and trauma.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Alphonse’s search for justice unfold?\",\"answer\":\"After Jube Rosenfield’s suicide, Alphonse directs grief and rage toward Ray, a corrupt lawyer, believing vengeance will restore moral order, until Ray’s unexpected death collapses his plans and exposes the illusion of arranging endings.\"},{\"question\":\"What methods does the novel use to enact improvisation?\",\"answer\":\"It uses improvisational writing methods such as stream-of-consciousness writing, commonplace journaling, iterative revision, live performance, and archival collage, with narrative structure emerging through interruption and recurrence rather than predetermined design.\"}]","Composing The Unknowable: Art, Revenge, And The Meaning Of The Black Square - A Thesis | PDF",1791923040,42]