Solo Live Coding – Andrew R Brown

My creative practice includes solo live coding performances. Live Coding involves writing software that makes music (or anything else If you prefer) as pat of the performance. It is a practice that is like improvised composition, where musical processes are described in computer code and executed and modified on the fly. It is customary for the code to be projected so that the audience can see the ‘score’ unfolding and to follow (to the extent they are familiar with the language) the evolving creative process. For more details on live coding see my 2006 article, Code Jamming, in the cultural studies journal MC.

The image above is from my performance at NIME 2010 in Sydney.

An edited version of the live coding work “Kings Anatomy” performed in London in 2010. This edited version was included on the Computer Music Journal’s 2011 Sound and Video Anthology, Vol 35.

The video above is of a live coding performance at the Australasian Computer Music Conference in Auckland, New Zealand in 2011.

An image from my performance at the 1st International Live Code Festival in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2013.

Above is an Algorave performance in New York in 2016. Music was coded and performed by Andrew R. Brown and visuals were coded and performed by Ramsay Nasser.

Below is a performance using my Live Coding Toolkit for Pure Data and the Hydra graphics environment in March 2023 at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.

“Recur Again” by Andrew. R. Brown. 2023. Performance with the Live Coding Toolkit for Pure Data.