Description

As a society, I believe we have a bias towards thinking of code as a tool for automation and industrialization. Code is a way to automate things that people do, and often in doing so becomes a tool for dehumanization. In the most pessimistic view, the people that are able to code are advanced technicians, implementers of an inhumane future.

However, programming can also be an interface, a way to insert the human back into the machine. Live coding reclaims programming as a means of making art and, in our case, music.

Workshop

I spoke a few weeks ago with a friend sharing my frustrations that we didn't have much of a scene&emdash;as far as I could see&emdash;in our area, and I wanted to share my passion for live coding with some people locally. We decided to host a workshop, with him as the host and me as the presenter.

We each invited a few people who had varying levels of experience with music and programming, we set a date, and then I put together a presentation. The day came, we had some pizza, and it went better than I could have imagined! There was only 1 error (since corrected) in my presentation. Everyone took things in their own directions, some great questions were asked, and I got to jam and chat with everyone present. We definitely need to source a decent projector though. The presentation being online really helped, but I wish I could show people my screen…

My sincerest thank-yous to the strudel contributors who have put together a very easy-to-use and easy-to-teach library.

Hopefully we will continue to meet regularly and start opening up our meetup to the public once we find a public place to meet.