---
# System prepended metadata

title: Dancing w/ Algorithms

---

# Dancing w/ Algorithms 💻💃🏻
## Computational Art, Design and Performance

@PRATT INSTITUTE 2024

## Introduction

![](https://i.imgur.com/MC9O6zJ.jpg)

Joana Chicau is a graphic designer, coder, researcher — with a background in dance. She researches the intersection of the body with the constructed, designed, programmed environment, aiming at widening the ways in which digital sciences is presented and made accessible to the public. 

She has been actively participating and organizing events involving multi-location collaborative coding, algorithmic improvisation, discussions on digital equity and activism.

She is currently an associate lecturer and PhD candidate at UAL Creative Computing Institute at the University of the Arts London.

.･ﾟﾟ･ [joanachicau.com](https://joanachicau.com/)
.･ﾟﾟ･ [post.lurk.org/@joanachicau](https://post.lurk.org/@joanachicau)
.･ﾟﾟ･ [are.na/joana-chicau](https://www.are.na/joana-chicau/web-choreographies-other-stories)
.･ﾟﾟ･    [linkedin joana-chicau](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joana-chicau/)
.･ﾟﾟ･ [twitter.com/BChicau](https://twitter.com/BChicau)


### Inspiration

#### -> CODE <-> LANGUAGE <-> BODIES <-> PERFORMANCE <-> PERFORMATIVITY <-

![article_large-120](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/ByjQKC70lg.jpg)

Fig.1: Alison Knowles with Norman Kaplan, Poem Drop Event, May 1971, House of Dust, 1969–75. California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. Photographer unknown. © Alison Knowles.

* “The House of Dust” (1968) a digital poem composed of four separate categories prepared by Knowles in advance and programmed in FORTRAN-IV by Tenney, which was then processed by a mainframe computer at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (BPI). [Continue reading here](https://www.x-traonline.org/article/objectpoems-alison-knowless-feminist-architexure).
    * [Watch: Alison Knowles Reads the House of Dust Poem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJe1kciX4ZQ)



![Screenshot 2025-10-20 at 16.55.22](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SJ-k2R7All.png)


Fig.2: 9 Evenings, Theatre & Engineering, 1966

> "9 Evenings was the first large-scale collaboration between artists and engineers and scientists. The two groups worked together for 10 months to develop technical equipment and systems that were used as an integral part of the artists’ performances." [Read more here](https://monoskop.org/9_Evenings:_Theatre_and_Engineering).
* [See program](https://www.fondation-langlois.org/9evenings/e/index.html)
* [Video trailler: 9 Evenings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-cgnK-kFoo)
* [Video: Open Score, 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, 1966, edited circa 1997](https://vimeo.com/107488380)



![interface](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SJiAzCHIp.jpg)
Fig.3: image from LAUREN by Lauren Lee McCarthy (2017)

> "I attempt to become a human version of Amazon Alexa, a smart home intelligence for people in their own homes. The performance lasts up to a week. It begins with an installation of a series of custom designed networked smart devices (including cameras, microphones, switches, door locks, faucets, and other electronic devices). I then remotely watch over the person 24/7 and control all aspects of their home. I aim to be better than an AI because I can understand them as a person and anticipate their needs. The relationship that emerges falls in the ambiguous space between human-machine and human-human." [Link to work](https://lauren-mccarthy.com/LAUREN).



![](https://i.imgur.com/stY1qMI.jpg)
Fig.4: screenshot from Vocable Code by Winnie Soon (2019)

> "Vocable Code is both a work of “software art” (software as artwork, not software to make an artwork) and a “codework” (where the source code and critical writing operate together) produced to embody “queer code”, examining the notion of queerness in computer coding through the interplay of different human and nonhuman voices. Collective statements and voices complete the phrase “Queer is…” and together make a computational and poetic composition. Through running Vocable Code on a browser, the texts and voices are repeated and disrupted by mathematical chaos, creating a dynamic audio-visual literature and exploring the performativity of code, subjectivity and language." [Read more about the artwork](https://siusoon.net/projects/vocablecode).

* [Vocable Code — live version](https://dobbeltdagger.net/VocableCode_Educational/).


### LIVE CODING ♪┏(・o･)┛♪┗ ( ･o･) ┓♪

![](https://i.imgur.com/q1M5Z3c.jpg)


Fig.5: Antonio Roberts aka HelloCatFood [from a show at (Algo|Afro) Futures](https://algo-afro-futures.lurk.org/)

> Live coding — sometimes referred to as “on-the-fly programming,” “just in time programming,” or even “conversational programming” — is about people interacting with the world, and each other, in “real- time,” via code.

> Live coding asks questions about liveness, inviting us to reflect on what it means to be live — to have bodies, to communicate, to act.

> Live coding involves the “showing of the screen” or the making visible of the coding process as part of a live performance. Broadly speaking, it describes the improvisatory real-time composition of predominantly computer-generated audio-visual material, where the writing of code itself (or other executable instructions) is presented as a live event for an audience.

[Source Live Coding User's Manual](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/live-coding)
 

![](https://i.imgur.com/CKf3V9A.jpg)

Fig.6: Image featuring live coding collective  [Codie](https://codie.live/)

![Screenshot 2025-10-20 at 16.51.48](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/ryE9iAQRge.png)


Fig.7: Image from performance *Hacking Choreography* [by Kate Sicchio](https://www.sicchio.com/)
* [Video of Hacking Choreography](https://vimeo.com/92885158)

![67e522a02113d63ee9ebc802_SILKEGRABINGER_CONVERGENCE_Still2](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SyR2L_Dlxe.jpg)

Fig.8: Silke Grabinger created the dance performance "CONVERGENCE", involving two humans— herself and Theresa Scheinecker—and two robots, "Spot" and a robotic vacuum cleaner. Both robots respond to infrared light via sensors, facilitating a choreographed encounter between human and machine. 
* [CONVERGENCE & SPOTSHOTBEUYS](https://www.silk.at/actual-projects/convergence-spotshotbeuys)

![DDF-SHONEN-PHOENIX-photo-SEBASTIEN-LEFEVRE-0](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/r1mvddPgel.jpg)

Fig.9: A piece for drones and dancers, Phoenix articulates two realities. At first playful, the drones on stage interact with three performers, creating an unsettling soundtrack as they approach and retreat from the microphone. Then we connect live via Skype with artists in Gaza who live with the constant threat and roar of drones. They share their dances and experiences with us - their artform, an act of resistance. 
* [ PHOENIX - Eric Minh Cuong Castaing / Shonen ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLS0u56hlFQ)

---

## From the stage to the screen (and vice-versa)

**Exploring Interface Design and Reflecting on User Experience** Visual Design, UX and UI; Programming (HTML/CSS/Javascript).


![](https://i.imgur.com/lSaL31N.gif)
Fig.8: screenshot compilation of visuals by Joana Chicau


### Coding & Performing


**Web Choreographies** w/ Jip de Beer

![WebScreenShot12](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rkggHbuFp.png)
Fig.9: screenshot from a performance integrating 3D visualizations display of  live coded web environments.

* [Video trailler](https://vimeo.com/318721981);
* [Project's website](https://joanachicau.com/web_choreographies.html);

**Circle & Half** w/ Renick Bell

![Screen Shot 2024-01-19 at 14.25.58](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SyeMwZdF6.png)

Fig.10: screenshot from a collaborative real-time audio-visual composition.

* [The Stage is Alive web artwork](https://www.geometries.xyz/theStageIsAlive/);
* [Choreographies of the Circle & Other Geometries](https://criticalcode.recipes/contributions/choreographies-of-the-circle-other-geometries)

**Second Order Simulacra**

![oto-P8310232](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rkib7bOYT.jpg)

Fig.11: videoclip for the new EP error topography by digital selves, released by the label Cherche Encore,supported by Arts Council England. Photo credit: Antonio Roberts (aka hellocatfood).

* [Link to video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5sJjfAkymI)

**Anatomies of Intelligence**  by Joana Chicau and Jonathan Reus

![](https://i.imgur.com/NdwwivQ.jpg)
Fig.12: screenshot from AoI's virtual theatre 

Anatomies of Intelligence (AoI) is an artistic research project that investigates connections between the processes in anatomical knowledge and the “anatomy” of computational learning and prediction, datasets and machine learning models. 

* [Project website](https://anatomiesofintelligence.github.io/)

### Coding & Designing

**Live Coding: a user's manual @ MIT Press**

![MIT_LiveCoding-Chicau](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/HkY4dbdF6.png)
Fig.13: Live Coding: a user's manual book cover by Joana Chicau

Design, Code & Concept for a 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. 

The cover design is by Joana Chicau, using FT88 from the Degheest font family designed by Mandy Elbé and Oriane Charvieux, based on typeface by Ange Degheest.

* [Link to this book](https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262544818/live-coding/);

**Choreographing You! Dear User, are you ready to move?**

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/S1JUNvGTh.gif)

Fig.14: screenshot of artwork and essay by Joana Chicau 

Contribution to 're-coding everyday technology' VOL. 1 contains 12 positions by artists, researchers and designers on questioning the default conditions and circumstances of everyday technology. 

* [Link to project](https://re-coding.technology/choreographing-you/);

**Choreographic Analytics**

![](https://i.imgur.com/k6w7fmR.gif)

Fig.14: screenshot of the work Choreographic Analytics by Joana Chicau

A local analytics engine for the ‡ DobbeltDagger website, in collaboration with Anders Visti. It presents an alternative form of documenting, analyzing, notating and archiving ‡ DobbeltDagger. Every search performed is an act of making a new choreography — which brings new relations and new links between words and meanings — building up on an ecology of growing choreographies.

* [Link to project](https://dobbeltdagger.net/publication/choreographic-analytics);





---


## Feedback & Discussion 🗫 🦜


Any questions?


## Further References 

🌈 🖥 🌈 🖥

**Live Coding Community Links**

* [TopLap Hub](https://toplap.org/nodes/)
* [TopLap Forum](https://forum.toplap.org/);
* [TopLap Yearly Conference](https://iclc.toplap.org/)
* [Live Streamed live coding performances Eulerroom](https://www.youtube.com/c/Eulerroom/videos)
* [Tutorial on using gifs in Improviz](https://www.hellocatfood.com/improviz-gifs/)
* [list of Live Coding Tools](https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding)


**Documentaries & Interviews**
* [Interviews with various live coders ](https://creativecodingutrecht.nl/index-articles)
* [ on-the-fly.documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntFMuvv2-TY)
* [Algorave Generation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2EZqikCIfY)
* [Artist DIY: Digital Selves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2KeNblKSFM&list=PLkRYCVc1KXTXXma9O9gngxu_RrfHm25vT&index=42&t=1s)
* [Run the code: is algorave the future of dance music?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h340aNznHnM)
* [Show Us Your Screens](https://vimeo.com/20241649) 
