Much of what we do in software development is focused on residual artifacts of the process. But software development is itself a process, and the best development happens not when programmers are keying in the code to implement a design but when great programmers are improvising within constraints and iterating toward a goal.
Programming is something you do (as opposed to something that is just done). Why isn’t there much focus on programming as a performance activity?
I’ve heard interesting tales of programmers performing on stage either during conference presentations (the developer of Ruby Cocoa at Ruby Kaigi last year) or driving live computer-music.
I’d like to see more examples. Anyone have any to link?
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June 23rd, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Hey Chad, Just this past week I attended a Denver event at the museum, a live performance interpretation of the paintings of Clifford Still.
One of the performers was “VJ Movax,” who uses a combination of approaches to create his ‘video sculptures’.
A youtube link to an Amon Tobin performance is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvC9oHH6T_c&feature=related
And his work is not necessary that chaotic. The Clifford Still performance I saw was very ambient and emotional.
A lot of his ‘performance programming’ is prepared, but he is running and mixing the results of various scripts and programs in real time. Not sure how much actual in-the-moment programming he’s actually doing during a performance.
June 23rd, 2008 at 01:04 PM
p.s. Thank you for coming to RubyKaigi!
June 23rd, 2008 at 03:54 PM
Here’s a link to a “livecoding” demo from Budapest last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTt8r3LhCFM
The coders in the video use Fluxus (http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/), an interactive Scheme-based livecoding environment.
Processing (http://www.processing.org) is another package which is, I think, aimed at the same kinds of activities.
June 23rd, 2008 at 07:14 PM
my friend gary invented ChucK, a real-time audio programming language. he normally does a live demonstration of it, composing music on the fly. video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2rpk461T6l4 and info on the language: http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/
July 6th, 2008 at 09:56 AM
@ Kevin thaks for the youtube link