Live Coding A User's Manual

The first comprehensive introduction to the origins, aspirations, and evolution of live coding.

Performative, improvised, on the fly: live coding is about how people interact with the world and each other via code. In the last few decades, live coding has emerged as a dynamic creative practice gaining attention across cultural and technical fields—from music and the visual arts through to computer science. Live Coding: A User’s Manual is the first comprehensive introduction to the practice, and a broader cultural commentary on the potential for live coding to open up deeper questions about contemporary cultural production and computational culture. This multi-authored book—by artists and musicians, software designers, and researchers—provides a practice-focused account of the origins, aspirations, and evolution of live coding, including expositions from a wide range of live coding practitioners. In a more conceptual register, the authors consider liveness, temporality, and knowledge in relation to live coding, alongside speculating on the practice’s future forms.

Alan Blackwell is Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at the University of Cambridge.

Emma Cocker is a writer-artist and Associate Professor in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University.

Geoff Cox is Associate Professor and Codirector of the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University.

Thor Magnusson is Professor in Future Music at the University of Sussex and Research Professor at the Iceland University of the Arts.

Alex McLean is Research Fellow of the Then Try This independent research studio and instigator of the TidalCycles software and Algorave movement.

List of Figures vii
Series Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Introduction to Live Coding: A User's Manual 1
2 Partial Histories 13
3 Expositions 39
4 Notation 125
5 Live Coding's Liveness(es) 159
6 Time Critically in Live Coding 181
7 What Does Live Coding Know? 205
8 What Does Live Coding Want? 229
Notes 245
Bibliography 295
Index 321