Live Coding: A User’s Manual (MIT, 2022) is the first comprehensive introduction to the origins, aspirations, and evolution of live coding, that I have co-authored with Alan Blackwell (Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at the University of Cambridge); Geoff Cox (Professor of Art and Computational Culture and Codirector of the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University); Alex McLean (Research Fellow of the Then Try This independent research studio and instigator of the TidalCycles software and Algorave movement); and Thor Magnusson (Professor in Future Music at the University of Sussex and Research Professor at the Iceland University of the Arts).
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.
Live Coding: A User’s Manual will be published in November 2022. More here.