livecode-workshop-postmortem
A workshop where we explored code as a musical interface.
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 as far as I could see 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.
Correction
It turns out there is a pretty cool scene in the area! In the past few weeks I've been meeting more people and getting involved in Boston Tech Poetics. It turns out they were just on Instagram this whole time...
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.