Sync or Swarm: Musical Improvisation and the Complex Dynamics of Group Creativity

This essay draws on participant observation, ethnographic interviews, phenomenological inquiry, and recent insights from the study of swarm intelligence and complex networks to illuminate the dynamics of collective musical improvisation. Throughout, it argues for a systems understanding of creativity—a view that takes seriously the notion that group creativity is not simply reducible to individual psychological processes—and it explores interconnections between the realm of musical performance, community activities, and pedagogical practices. Lastly, it offers some reflections on the ontology of art and on the role that music plays in human cognition and evolution, concluding that improvising music together allows participants and listeners to explore complex and emergent forms of social order.