Doing things live - isn’t preparing something just a series of live actions itself?
todays low resolution thoughts
liveness
The difference with liveness is time pressure. You don’t have time to stop and think. The pressure makes thinking more difficult.
With practice you can ease the pressure (if you put it on yourself)
But there is still the (imagined?) expectation that changes and developments should continue to happen in order to engage your audience
how to approach ‘full’ liveness -
No one (that I’ve seen) in live coding just presses play and steps back. Not that I would be against this.
So everyone is making live changes.
Some start with a blank screen.
Even if I start from a blank screen I can’t resist the temptation to think about what I would do beforehand and make a rudimentary mental plan.
You can also stop and think. This doesn’t take as long as you would imagine (this is a note to self as much as anything)
I’ve always been a ’live’ musician.
Teenage guitar me would compose and then play the notes live.
Student band me would write loops and arrange them on stage.
Electro band me would co-write songs and compose them from loops while others played instruments.
Solo electonic hardware me - much the same.
Live code me writes code live, sometimes starting with a blank screen, sometimes starting with code that I previously jammed out, sometimes with code that I jammed over a longer period of time.
My recordings are always an unedited single take with no post processing except normalising/limiting levels.
Occasionally those are almost-generative pieces that require little attention during recording.
Its not to prove anything. Its to help ensure a certain amount of energy and jeopardy. This is required because I would easily fall into making some pretty dull music otherwise.
On Sunday I’ve signed up to do a from-scratch performance on eulerroom
What may happen:
- can’t get obs working properly
- feel afterwards that I rushed and missed opportunities or didn’t showcase my work well
- feel like i have pushed my boundaries and kept my process fresh
- receive some kind of virtual applause (this is in the rules)
At the algorave on 26th November 2025 Corisca Studios UK, James Holden did a from scratch performance which was very brave.
One friend who is notorious for being negative about other artists said they thought it was boring. I do not endorse this opinion! It sounded lovely and there is no other way to develop as an artist than being vulnerable live on stage. I hope it is an inspirational set to you all.
live coding is hard! we need to lower the bar to the floor and keep it there in order to reduce pressure, welcome in newcomers and allow for magical things to happen.
(the live coding community is already good at this. lets continue)
this blog post was written ’live’