NIME 2018

Performance Systems for Live Coders and Non Coders
by Avneesh Sarwate, Ryan Taylor Rose, Jason Freeman & Jack Armitage

This paper explores the question of how live coding musicians can perform with musicians who are not using code (such as acoustic instrumentalists or those using graphical and tangible electronic interfaces). This paper investigates performance systems that facilitate improvisation where the musicians can interact not just by listening to each other and changing their own output, but also by manipulating the data stream of the other performer(s). In a course of performance-led research four prototypes were built and analyzed them using concepts from NIME and creative collaboration literature. Based on this analysis it was found that the systems should 1) provide a commonly modifiable visual representation of musical data for both coder and non-coder, and 2) provide some independent means of sound production for each user, giving the non-coder the ability to slow down and make non-realtime decisions for greater performance flexibility.