i think it would also be useful to have some sort of "how to get started"
for audiences. a lot of the complaints about livecoding are that watching
people program must be boring, and would take all the fun out of a musical
performance. and if all you know about livecoding is that it's "watching
people program onstage" it does sound boring, doesn't it?
for me this is ironic, because my main interest in livecoding is that i
find most electronic music / visual live performances boring. not the
music, just the performance. it's like my guitar teacher said a very long
time ago, when popular music as we knew it was still guitars, bass and
drums: "computers will never replace humans for making music. people want
to watch humans performing."
but what about when a computer is performed by a person? if you can't tell
the person is performing it, then what's the difference? various of us
have said at various times, that a lot of electronic music / visual
performers might be writing e-mail on stage.
the point of livecoding is to show the *performance*, right? the
equivalent of the fingering on a guitar, the hitting of the drums, etc...
the kinetics of electronic performance... it's not the same of course,
because the computer is a different animal than a mechanical instrument.
and we've discussed lots of times the problem of making coding interesting
as a mode of performance, which is an ongoing and somewhat individual
dilemma we each work on. but - livecoding does give the audience a means
to experience the human aspect of computer performance.
i think that doesn't come across well in articles/discussions about
livecoding.... and probably the website could be more audience-oriented as
well. big link "livecoding for audiences" maybe?
-_at_
On Sat, 22 Jul 2006, mcburton wrote:
m> On 7/22/06, Kassen <signal.automatique_at_gmail.com> wrote:
m>
m> > I'm completely with Alex's sugestion on having a "how do I start?" section
m> > on the site. That need not even be just for outsiders; a "how do I start"
m> > for some of the more exotic systems floating around here would be
m> > interesting to me (and probably many?) as well.
m>
m> I'm new to this list, found you all via the Wired article. I would
m> love to see some "how do I start?" articles up on the wiki. "Hacking
m> perl in nightclubs" is a good read, but I felt might leave some
m> new-comers in the dust. I have wanted to dive into Chuck or Fluxus,
m> but haven't had the time....perhaps some nice short tutorials,
m> (screencasts would be awesome!) on some of the basics.
m>
m> Livecoding has a very bright future (IMHO), not just in the
m> performance/art space, but in computing in general. I think you guys
m> are doing groundbreaking work, keep it up!
m>
m>
m> mcb
m>
Received on Thu Jul 27 2006 - 17:13:07 BST