Bonjour Alex, great to hear from you!
Well yes is the short answer. There was a bit of discussion recently
about this hidden in the 'live coding' thread although there are 59
mails in there :)
One thing is although you say programming is available to everybody, I
think that is becoming less true. It is against Apple's terms to
distribute programming languages for their phones, pads and I presume
desktop computers via their store, for example. You can't ship an 8
bit computer emulator without disabling the inbuilt BASIC interpreter.
A Scratch language interpreter designed for children has even been
banned. So one practical use of live coding is to make creative
interfaces that people want to use that are not distributable on these
filthy devices. Maybe the only way that people can understand
software freedom is by becoming programmers.
Another use is to create pressure on the design of programming
languages to make them more humanitarian. People think of programming
languages as a way of communicating formal rules to a computer, but we
know of them as a way of making music and video with other people.
This totally reframes things. As Adam Smith said in that other thread
"Having done a little bit of reading in Software Studies, I was
surprised by just how many claims are invalidated with a single simple
example of livecoding." For a long time computer scientists have been
trying to erase time from programming, and we're now putting it back
in. For a long time computer musicians have been trying to hide the
computation in their music, and we're celebrating it.
So yes I am optimistic in thinking live coding has use both in
changing programming languages to make them more human, and changing
human ideas about what programming languages and computers can be.
alex
On 24 February 2011 23:54, Alexandre Garacotche <alex_at_idoia.com> wrote:
> The thing is that I am doing some writings these days on the potential of coding (in general) as a way to better understand the implications of technology and its development in our social and human life. As an example, does not programming in HTML give a better understanding of the implications of being in a free (as a bird) space, the Web, which future (and thus ours) might depend of our use of it, and particulary of its code ?
> Now, going a bit more in depth, can we consider on a larger scale, the act of programming, given that it is accessible to everyone, as a way to get the development of technology back into an humanitarian purpose ? Might it make things worse, can it no make them better ?
>
> Can we think of any other potential, may it be theorical, of live coding appart from the factual one that is to please the people when showing our code ? Don't get me wrong, I am not critisizing any of your word alex (hit me!), but I like to think live coding as something that as a greater reach than that of pleasure for the artist or for the listener.
>
> What is your opinion on that ?
>
> I hope I made myself clear (my english is a bit rusted).
> Alex
>
> Le 24 févr. 2011 à 23:33, alex <alex_at_lurk.org> a écrit :
>
>> Yes I agree with you totally, it gets across the definition of live
>> coding in precise terms but says nothing about what it really is.
>> I've used this introductory paragraph before, which I think goes a bit
>> towards what you are saying:
>>
>> Live coding is a new direction in electronic music and video, and is
>> getting somewhere
>> interesting. Live coders expose and rewire the innards of software
>> while it generates
>> improvised music and/or visuals. All code manipulation is projected
>> for your pleasure.
>>
>> I don't have the energy to work on this either, but maybe that is a
>> better starting point?
>>
>> On 24 February 2011 22:14, Kassen <signal.automatique_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Great! Unlike the old one this has structure so that's a step up already.
>>> For further improvement I'd like to suggest starting with some debate on the
>>> opening paragraph, which I'd argue is one of the most important parts of the
>>> site, for a practice as niche as ours currently is;
>>> TOPLAP exists to promote what has come to be known as 'Live Coding', the
>>> writing and modifying of rules while they are followed. This includes
>>> improvising music and/or video, either to perform before an audience, or to
>>> conduct exploratory research.
>>> All of that is true, of course, It's quite exhaustive too... but I wouldn't
>>> say this paragraph is a friendly and inviting one. To me this paragraph
>>> doesn't convey the "a bit of danger is fun" feeling that makes performing
>>> and watching performances exciting. What if we'd cut back slightly on being
>>> complete and would start with something a bit more fun in a sort of "bold
>>> yet friendly" way?
>>> I feel a bit bad about suggesting this yet not offering a start right now
>>> but my brain doesn't seem in top-form tonight. Maybe somebody else feels
>>> like that, or maybe I'm just plain wrong.
>>> Yours,
>>> Kas.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://yaxu.org/
>
>
--
http://yaxu.org/
Received on Fri Feb 25 2011 - 00:34:15 GMT