Cocreation: Distributing Agency in Interaction

The question of how to attribute authorship in Soundpainting has raised some discussion in the literature, and this chapter approaches this question by reexamining the social nature of authorship in Soundpainting and refocusing the discussion on the distribution of agency. In practice, Soundpainting draws upon a static distribution of agency between soundpainter and ensemble but also allows for and encourages dynamic distribution of agency within the ensemble. Soundpainting even includes means with which content and actions are grounded primarily in dynamically established relations of mutual observation and interaction between participants. This chapter discusses key expectations and ramifications of these ways of distributing agency, which bear some resemblance to everyday social interactions, but, at the same time, sets Soundpainting sessions aside as spaces in which interactions are allowed and even encouraged to move beyond habitual scripts and into the creative and experimental realms.