Sync or Swarm, Revised Edition

The revised edition of Sync or Swarm promotes an ecological view of musicking, moving us from a subject-centered to a system-centered view of improvisation. It explores cycles of organismic self-regulation, cycles of sensorimotor coupling between organism and environment, and cycles of intersubjective interaction mediated via socio-technological networks. Chapters funnel outward, from the solo improviser (Evan Parker), to nonlinear group dynamics (Sam Rivers trio), to networks that comprise improvisational communities, to pedagogical dynamics that affect how individuals learn, completing the hermeneutic circle. Winner of the Society for Ethnomusicology's Alan Merriam prize in its first edition, the revised edition features new sections that highlight electro-acoustic and transcultural improvisation, and concomitant issues of human-machine interaction and postcolonial studies.

David Borgo is a saxophonist/composer/improviser, ethnomusicologist, and Professor and Chair of Music at UC San Diego, USA. Sync or Swarm won the Alan P. Merriam Prize in 2006, the Society for Ethnomusicology's most distinguished award. He has performed around the world, released 13 albums, and published extensively in scholarly and other outlets.

Acknowledgments Preface Preface (first edition) 1. The Sound and Science of Surprise The Age of Complexity Sync or Swarm 2. The Study of Improvisation The Field of Improvisation Studies Referent-Based Improvisation Referent-Free Improvisation Freedom Music Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't Improvisation Is, Improvisation Isn't A Marvel of Paradox 3. Strange Loops The Embodied Mind Enaction and Prediction Taking the Note for a Walk It's a Bit Like Juggling Lived Body and Living Body On Repeat Fractal Correlation Circular Causality Hall of Mirrors 4. Rivers of Consciousness The Art of the Trio Complexity and Emergence Musical Elephants The Sound of One Note Clapping Time and the Qualia of Experience The Phase Space of Improvisation Attractors Hues of Melanin Fractal Correlation Flights and Perchings 5. Orderly Disorder Chaotics Complex Adaptive Systems Dissipative Structuring Ancient to Future Sketches of Another Future 6. Sync and Swarm The Science of Sync Entrainment A Coordination Problem Insect Music The Art of Improvisation in the Age of Computational Participation The Puzzle of Coaction A Web Without a Spider Reassembling the Social 7. Harnessing Complexity The Map is Not the Territory Situated Musicianship Group Creativity Yes, and. Comprovisation The Shores of Multiplicity Complementarity and Metastability References Index