In presenting their comprehensive definition of improvisation, the authors consider developments in improvisation in the arts since 1945 by particularly emphasising process and technique and by featuring artists in all media, from Grotowski and Laurie Anderson to Goldsworthy. Their approach is analytical and theoretical, but it is also relevant to practitioners and their audience. For Smith and Dean improvisation has been of great importance and value in the contemporary arts because of its potential to develop new forms, often by breaking existing definitions: indeed they see hypermedia and interactive technologies as playing a key role in dissolving the audience/creator separation which exists especially in Western society, though often less in other cultures.