Disruption and creativity in live coding

Abstract

Live coding is an artistic performance practice where computer music and graphics are created, displayed and manipulated in front of a live audience together with projections of the (predominantly text based) computer code. Although the pressures of such performance practices are considerable, until now only familiar programming aids (for example syntax highlighting and textual overlays) have been used to assist live coders. In this paper we integrate an intelligent agent into a live coding system and examine how that agent performed in two contrasting modes of operation—as a recommender, where on request the the agent would generate (but not execute) domain-appropriate code transformations in the performer’s text editor, and as a disruptor, where the agent generated and immediately executed changes to the code and the streaming music being performed. A within-subjects study of six live coders suggested that participants of the study preferred the agent’s disruptive mode as a mechanism for enhancing the creativity of their live coding performances.