On-the-fly cantina

Live coding activities have many layers and composer-programmers have spent extensive hours designing, understanding, or extending numerous languages or libraries before performing. In addition, reflecting on live coding nature and possibilities contextualizes and restricts the possible paths to follow. This is an essential process as the possibilities would otherwise be infinite. For these reasons, the "on-the-fly" project has both a space for performances and a space for research. In the research space, the virtual research group, we discuss, explore, identify, reflect on and imagine creative directions in the live coding practice. As part of its activities the on-the-fly research group has organized a series of monthly casual video chats: on-the-fly cantina. Each session has been hosted by one or more members of the community and has been dedicated to a different question. Rather than focusing on tools and specific programming languages, these meetups have provided a space to discuss aesthetics, meta levels and how we relate to live coding - both as artists and as audience. The discussions carried out have the titles: “Now that we have gathered - what shall we discuss?”, “How alive is a live-streamed Algorave”, ˝Live Coding Machine Learning˝ and ˝How do the tools we use shape our artistic statement?”

A recurring theme is the relationship of the discussed topics to the TOPLAP manifesto and how live coders explore its limits and possibilities. For this reason, we decided to dedicate the two cantina sessions of the ICLC 2021 to both reflect on the draft manifesto, now that the live coding scene has turned 20 years old, and to discuss and imagine what a future manifesto should contain. 

Grab a beer or tea, and come share your thoughts with us on December 15th and 17th at TIME GOES HERE on https://jitsi.hangar.org/ontheflycantina