Special issue of CMJ DVD on livecoding
The latest issue of the Computer Music Journal is now available, and it includes a DVD full of livecoding performances and demonstrations.
Because this is the Winter issue, it includes the annual CMJ DVD, whose program notes appear near the end of the issue. The curators for the compositions on this year's DVD are specialists in live coding, the practice of onstage computer programming whose real-time output is an improvised and often collaborative musical performance. As always, the DVD also includes sound and video examples to accompany recent articles, as well as related files on the DVD-ROM portion of the disc.
For those unfamiliar with livecoding, it represents a unique intersection of programming, improvisation, and performance art. Musicians write and modify code in real-time, creating music through algorithms and computational processes while the audience watches the code being written. This transparency of process is central to the livecoding aesthetic.
More information
A full description of the contents of the DVD is available here (and here if you're not benefiting from an academic subscription). I'm very proud to say that it includes one of my livecoding pieces, Untitled 12, performed live at the Anatomy Museum livecoding event in 2010.