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 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 multiauthored 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.
Written by Alan Blackwell, Emma Cocker, Geoff Cox, Alex McLean and Thor Magnusson, with an expositions chapter consisting of contributions from Rangga Aji, ALGOBABEZ, Jack Armitage, Rafaele Andrade, Pietro Bapthysthe, Lina Bautista, Renick Bell, Alexandra Cardenas, Lucy Cheesman, Joana Chicau, Nick Collins, Malitzin Cortes, Mamady Diara, Claudio Donaggio, Rebecca, a Fernandes, Jason Freeman, Flor de Fuego, Sarah Groff Hennigh-Palermo, Mike Hodnick, Timo Hoogland, Miri Kaat, Abhinay Khoparzi, Shawn Lawson, Melody Loveless, Mynah Marie, Fabrice Mogini, Kofi Oduro, David Ogborn, Jonathan Reus, MicoRex, Antonio Roberts, Charlie Roberts, Jessica Rodriguez, Iris Saladino, Kate Sicchio, th4, Rodrigo Velasco, Elizabeth Wilson, and Anna Xambo.
Available via livecodingbook.toplap.org/
