I enjoyed reading your comments, Adrian, hope all good with you.
> i guess watching visuals generated from the same code as the music would
> help such an audience better to percieve what is going on.
surely that depends on the mappings themselves. Often, people go quickly
from direct causal physical mappings to much more abstract things (in
audiovisual work). And the same for the abstractions of code itself, level
can be somewhat selected. Craig's accessible text game interactions using
natural language processing, his `adventures in live coding' are a good
case.
> i think there's no uneducated audience that appreciates code
Amy has a great point about algorithmic literacy, and the increasing
ubiquity of coding in our lives. Education can happen, especially if we're
not afraid of code.
> because the public is very much familiar with the sound of a
> guitar, watching the player
> can be fun (just one unknown factor). a computers sound can be anything,
> the code will not resemble anything an audience has seen before
> (text-wise),
There is that physical side where causation can be observed. And we're at
least candid about turning from the gestural past in live coding practice.
But then, a lot of electric guitar sounds come from the inner workings of
pick-ups and amplifiers, unobservable. People got used to those sounds.
Perhaps our analogy should be more that of seeing the score an ensemble/
orchestra plays- this doesn't usually happen. The code is implicit score
and the sound origin is a DAC. We are exploring new ways of adjusting
scores during performances and the acoustic consequences from a higher
level vantage point than playing every note.
In an interesting concert a composer might live code the scores for
musicians during a performance. You could show the changing scores (perhaps
the code too that changes the scores) and have the acoustic musicians there
being physical.
> most people actually got fed-up with guitar players' solos, and their
> faces are funny at best.
And people will tire of certain cliches of live coding solos, its a natural
facet of musical life. Fortunately it is earlier in live coding history
than the history of guitar. We tend to explore, our curiosity drives us on.
Who knows what eventual virtuosity will result?
> also a laptop cannot be a fallus symbol, the way a guitar can be ;)
using a joystick controller with the laptop helps.
> i think one main point is, that we are not 'laptop-djs', and to
communicate that to
> a public can be quite important.
probably a point in favour of the projection of laptop screens. Reveal the
whole instrument as the manifesto says.
best
N
Received on Sun Apr 16 2006 - 17:07:43 BST