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title: Browser-based Live Coding Tools and Communities

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# Browser-based Live Coding Tools & Communities

@ [UbiMus2023](https://www.ulster.ac.uk/conference/ubimus) International Symposium on Ubiquitous Music

*Joana Chicau* is a designer and researcher — with a background in dance. 
She researches the intersection of the body with the designed and programmed environment — aiming at widening the ways in which digital sciences is presented and made accessible to the public. 
Chicau co-organises and participates in events involving collaborative coding, algorithmic improvisation, discussions on digital equity and activism. She is a PhD student at the Creative Institute at the University of the Arts London.

This PhD research is being supported by the AHRC Grant reference number AH/R01275X/1 UKRI Techne Studentship.
Thank you to my supervisors Prof. Rebecca Fiebrink, Dr Charlotte Webb and Dr. John Fass for their support

.･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)

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## ノ゛ Live Coding ゛

<span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> live coding |</span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> process showcase | </span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt">'show us your screen'</span>

> Live-coding performance is a practice within which computer code is written live (Blackwell et al, 2022) in front of an audience, making visible the algorithmic processes within the interface itself.

<br><br><br>

### ｡* : Browser-based Live Coding Tools : * ｡

<span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt">browser-based tools | </span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> DIY | </span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> collaboration | </span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> co-creation | </span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> communities | </span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> diversity and inclusion |</span><span style="color:blue; font-size:10pt"> sustainability </span>


> As browsers have grown their graphics and audio capabilities, we have witnessed a growing number of browser-based live coding environments (Roberts and Pachon-Puentes, 2019). `

:･ﾟ[Estuary](https://estuary.mcmaster.ca/) maintenance coordinated by David Ogborn
:･ﾟ[Gibber](https://gibber.cc) created by Charlie Roberts
:･ﾟ[Hydra](https://hydra.ojack.xyz/) created by Olivia Jack
:･ﾟ[Livecodelab](https://livecodelab.net/index.html) by Davide Della Casa and Guy John
:･ﾟ[Nodysseus](https://nodysseus.io/) created by Ulysses Popple
:･ﾟ[p5live](https://www.teddavis.org/p5live/) created by Ted Davis 
:･ﾟ[PixelJam](https://pixeljam.glitch.me/) created by Olivia Jack
:･ﾟ[Sema](https://github.com/mimic-sussex/sema) by Francisco Bernardo, Chris Kiefer, Thor Magnusson
:･ﾟ[Strudel](https://strudel.tidalcycles.org/learn/getting-started/) initiated by Felix Roos and Alex McLean


> The development of the environments listed above started as early as 2012 (Ogborn, 2017). This list is not intended as a comprehensive list as the live coding community, but one that highlights the emergence of browser-based tools in live coding. My attention to this phenomena comes from an interest in the browser and its affordances which I explore in my own practice (Chicau, 2018; Blackwell et al, 2022).


<img src="https://hackmd.io/_uploads/S1GWM4TMa.jpg" alt="drawing" style="width: 350px;"/>
<img src="https://hackmd.io/_uploads/r1UWf46Mp.jpg" alt="drawing" style="width: 350px;"/>

<span style="font-size:10pt">**caption**: Olivia Jack and workshop participants (left); live coding performance with Olivia Jack and Jo Chaim Reus (right). Photo by Aubanne Berthomme-Martinez, Courtesy of WORM, Rotterdam.</span>

Events part of Algo-Rhythms a series of live coding events that happened between November 2017 and November 2019 co-organised by Joana Chicau and Worm Rotterdam. The series aimed at reflecting on gender balance and diversity as well as to serve as a meeting point for practitioners, grow and strengthen the connections in the local community.


<img src="https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rJO1QEpGa.png" alt="drawing" style="width: 700px;"/>

<span style="font-size:10pt">**caption**: screenshot of group presentation by Hanna, Kateryna, Melina, Fiona, Aleks at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU).</span>


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### ｡* :  LiveCodera Community : * ｡

> I will focus on Estuary to refer to an event that brought together a small group (me included) of live coders from LivecoderA to celebrate the woman’s day on March 8th 2023. LivecoderA is a community of live coders who identify as women, who are based across the world. The community aligns itself with intersectional feminism and is inclusive to trans, femme and non-binary people and those who experience gender based discrimination (Chaplin et al., 2023).

→ [livecodera.glitch.me](https://livecodera.glitch.me/)

![](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SyJ0rVpMa.png)



<span style="font-size:10pt">**caption**: screenshot of Live Coding Jam during International Womens Day 2022 w/ digitalselves; irisS; joanachicau; shelly knotts; Cit.</span>

→ Video recording: [YouTube stream recordings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfDN4KHnNPE)
→ Video recording: [ Connection with Systerserver](https://tube.systerserver.net/w/jz9pJyaAzkkeuZHnx2EWF7)

> The interface is divided in six panels within which one of these languages can be selected. There is also a chat that enables communication between performers. The latter exposes decision making discussed during performance as well as jokes and humorous moments. This interface combines collaborative coding with conviviality, which can be witnessed in the the jam session by LivecoderA. Traces of the jam can be found in the Eulerroom channel and the peertube instance hosted by Systerserver.


> While reliance on internet connectivity is still a challenge, ‘zero-installation’ (Ogborn, 2017) and multi-lingual features of this environment opens up for more accessible, impromptu, forms of participation in collaborative live coding.

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# References
Blackwell, A.F., Cocker E., Cox G.,  McLean A., Magnusson T.  (2022) Live Coding: A User’s Manual. The MIT Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13770.001.0001 (accessed 23rd April 2023)

Betancur, C., Khoparzi, A., Knotts, S., Laubscher, M., Marie, M., Ogborn, D., Tsabary, E. 2021. SuperContinent: Global, collective live coding improvisation. NIME 2021. Shanghai, China.  

Champlin, A., Chicau J., Corfiel M., Knotts S., Mynah M., Saladino I., Xambó A. 2023. Community Report: Livecodera. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) 2023. Utrecht, The Netherlands..

Chicau, J. and Bell, R. 2018. ‘A Trans-Disciplinary Tool for Collaborative, Choreographed, and Embodied Audio-Visual Live Coding’. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Live Interfaces. Porto, Portugal.

Ogborn D, Beverley J, del Angel LN, Tsabary E, McLean A. 2017. Estuary: Browser-based collaborative projectional live coding of musical patterns. InInternational Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) 2017. Morelia, Mexico.

Roberts, C. and Pachon-Puentes, M. 2019. Bringing the tidalcycles mini-notation to the browser. In Proceedings of the Web Audio Conference. Trondheim, Norway.

Xin, X. and Moriwaki K. 2022. Critical Coding Cookbook: Intersectional Feminist Approaches to Teaching and Learning. Available at: https://criticalcode.recipes (accessed 23rd April 2023)