On Friday 24 July 2009 06:59:44 evan.raskob [lists] wrote:
> So livecoding is more than 2 steps down the line from physical
> experience - first, the world exists, then we interpret it
> internally, then we act on that interpretation by livecoding, which
> involves pressing keys and making errors and then finally having a
> computer interpret the response, then something physical happens
> (visuals projected, audio radiating from speakers), then we receive
> back the sensations and further interpret them. Its a far cry from a
> physical instrument that relies on haptic feedback and muscle memory,
> and something more akin to live poetry performance, freestyling, and
> watching a painter paint (like Jackson Pollock - check "Pollock 51"
> on youtube). Its an intellectual exercise, and as such its hard to
> get emotion into it, except tangentally. You miss the immediateness
> of response of a physical instrument, and even the human voice.
In my livecode performances, I've approached the concept from a point of view,
where the performance heavily depends on the act of typing the code itself.
Using the sound of the internal microphone as the basic sound material, which
then gets transformed and manipulated by the code I write, the sonic result
becomes entirely dependent on the act of typing the code itself. I then take
it a step further and code how the other side-effects of the act of live
coding (as gathered from the laptops built in sensors, such as the
accelerometer, webcam, and so on), affect the manipulation of the sound as we
go.
The screen of the laptop (which is actually sitting on my lap in this
performance), is projected, so both visually and sonically the audience gets a
very intimate expression of what is going on.
To me this was more or less the only way that it really made sense to do
livecoding; any move I make immediately affects the sound that is heard, and
the code reflects my attempts to change the way my movements affect the sound.
BTW, live coding quite heavily depends on muscle memory... I don't know what I
would do, if I hadn't had typing lessons when I was 11, and would be much
slower at typing than I am now. I always find it rather painful if someone
livecodes and it becomes obvious that his or her fingers are impeding the
train of thought transforming into code on the screen.
sincerely,
Marije
Received on Sun Jul 26 2009 - 04:07:34 BST