On 4/7/07, dave <dave_at_pawfal.org> wrote:
>
>
> It seems to me, from doing performances with various things (including
> al-jazari) that the clearer the code (in whatever form) the better the
> audience reaction.
I think that's true. I think I wrote a brief note some time back about
obfuscated code. Would obfuscated live-coding be Toplap compliant? To me the
comunicative side to livecoding is a very important aspect and obfuscation
harms that.
Also, maybe, livecoding with a visually over complex language is not too
> far away from not livecoding at all - i.e. it's just hiding behind
> something else, and somehow saying something worse - "you're not clever
> enough to understand this, but I am!".
>
> I worry a bit that that is how livecoding is percieved sometimes.
That's certainly a risk but it's a thin line. I'd also say that expressing
original and new musical ideas can be a important part and those will need
some time to settle in anyway, likely more time if they are linked to the
specifics of some language. I know that for me coding in ChucK influenced
some of my ideas about music so now there are some ideas that can be
expressed quite naturally there but that might be hard to understand if
confronted with that syntax for the first time. Still; I don't think coding
is that interesting if you don't make something new so that may result in
hard to understand code. Good video could help there. Clearly the video
isn't the preformance but it might help in the communicative process by
giving more time to digest the performance.
Maybe presentation is most important there. You can come across as elitist
with a 808 just as easily so perhaps coming across as if you are trying to
explain and stimulate rather then demonstrate would be enough.
I think your own al-jazari is doing great there. It's very striking visually
and it has that "can I try next after you are game over?" feel that good
games have. My girlfriend (who is just starting out in Java amd likes
experimental music and games) thought the ones where you generated shapes
and sounds were nice for a brief look but the coding context wasn't
imediately clear to her (I blame the resolution). On the other hand
al-jazari was imediately captivating and that one did make her drop what she
was doing. Admittedly a small data-set but it was a very strong responce.
To me beta-blocker comes across like those you-tube vids of expert players
in shooting games ("ikaruga" is a good example). It's beyond my level but it
looks realy cool and I'd like to practice and be able to play like that.
Most defiantely "you're not clever enough to understand this, but I am!" but
the cheerfull interface seems to imply we could all be that clever if we'd
just practice and that that practice would be fun. I think that's a nice
message to send.
You're on to something, I think, keep it up!
Kas.
Received on Sat Apr 07 2007 - 12:33:43 BST