A sign language for conducted improvisation -- Language structure: Foundations of meta-agentic communication -- What to do and how to do it: Fostering creativity with constraints -- Cocreation: Distributing agency in interaction -- Change, freeze, develop: Organization and transformation.

“I have long awaited a book which addresses using signing as the means to structure an improvisation-based performance into composition. Anders Eskildsen’s book is a fantastic in-depth study of Soundpainting. He explores its history, structures, its usages and how Soundpainting fits into today’s world of the performing arts. Bravo Anders!” --Walter Thompson, composer/pianist, and author of Soundpainting Workbooks 1-4, Soundpainting: A Language of Creativity For Music Educators (co-authored with Mark Harris), The Soundpainting Dictionary This book explores Soundpainting, a multidisciplinary sign language for live composition and conducted improvisation, highlighting its role in facilitating creative, social interactions in music and other performative arts. Examining the meaning of Soundpainting’s syntax, the connection between constraints and creativity in hand signs, and the means for dynamic distribution and transformation of agency within ensembles, the book provides insight into the nature of cocreation and the organization of creative processes. Anders Eskildsen is a certified soundpainter and an assistant professor of music at Aalborg University, Denmark. He holds a PhD in musicology from Aarhus University.