The International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) is dedicated to practices and research focused on technologies and philosophies that interpret the use of computer code and the public writing of algorithms as performative gestures. In its previous editions the community has provided valuable insights on this practice from diverse perspectives, including artistic, technical, philosophical, educational, social and political.
The 10th edition of ICLC will take place in Antwerp, Belgium, from March 9 to March 13, 2027 at the Royal conservatoire of Antwerp and at De Singel International Arts Center. We invite submissions in the form of papers, live performances, workshops and satellite events. The call is open to anyone engaged with live coding and its community principles.
There are no submission fees. Submissions must be submitted in English. However, for the live performance category only, you are welcome to also submit the proposal in your native (or any) language and include a machine translated version. In this case, state on your submission that it was machine translated. Please review the information about submissions and important dates below.
The substantial use of generative AI in the writing of papers and performance abstracts must be disclosed, with the exception of proofreading and translation.
We recognize that structural, financial and personal circumstances can affect participation, and we aim to foster an inclusive environment by paying attention to access needs, care responsibilities, and other barriers that contributors may face.
The proceedings of the conference will be published with a DOI number for each article.
We invite you to send proposals related to this year’s theme:
Dialogues
In our everyday lives, dialogue shapes relationships, ideas, and societies. Within live coding culture, dialogue takes on a richer, multidimensional meaning: it is the continuous, improvisational exchange among the coder, the machine, and the audience. Every line of code becomes a spoken gesture, a question posed to the software that answers back in sound, image, or movement, inviting listeners to respond in turn.
This conversation does not stay confined to the screen. It reaches across disciplines: musicians, dancers, visual artists, designers, and technologist, all contributing their vocabularies to a shared performance space. Code thus acts as a living bridge between traditions, cultures, and the evolving digital landscape we inhabit.
By foregrounding dialogue, ICLC 2027 invites creators to explore how these reciprocal interactions can amplify creativity, foster inclusivity, and push the boundaries of what live coded art can become. Whether through a musical duet between a synthesizer and a live coder, a choreographed conversation between dancers and algorithmic visuals, or a collaborative workshop that lets audiences become co‑authors of the code, the theme celebrates every moment where code speaks, listens, and evolves together.
De Singel, the Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of fine arts Antwerp, offer the opportunity to ICLC participants to work together with residents, students and researchers to make some of these topics possible. If you want to interact with a group of dancers, a jazz combo, a string quartet, visual artists, collaborations with students and researchers will be facilitated where possible. These collaborations are intended as mutual exchanges, offering contributors access to skilled performers and creative partners, while providing students with direct exposure to live coding practices.
For this edition of the ICLC, we encourage our community to leverage its multidisciplinary strengths and discover new boundaries to explore, expand or mutate, as highlighted by any of the following or even some other topics:
¹: Jazz-combo back-line available: drums (bring your own cymbals),
guitar-amp, bass-amp, piano.
Jazz-combo(musicians) : drums, guitar, piano, sax, double bass,
etc
²: A string quartet will be available to play the scores a prima vista.
Submission templates: will be announced soon.
Submission site: will be announced soon.
Please make sure to read the full proposal instructions shared in the README included with the templates. The peer review will be single-blind with at least two reviewers per submission.
We encourage proposals for in-person presentation, however remote proposals will be considered. Please see the Environmental Statement for more info on our position on travel and remote participation.
All papers must be written using the provided template.
You are welcome to submit your proposal in any language and include a machine-translated English version. Please state on your submission that it was machine-translated.
Please support your submission with a clear description of your performance, and discussion of influences and prior art as appropriate. Feel free to provide a link (Vimeo, Peertube, Pixelfed) to illustrate the performance. Please also be as thorough as possible with the Technical Questionnaire so that we can avoid surprises.
For the workshop category, you are welcome to submit your proposal in English, Dutch or French and include a machine translated English version. Please state on your submission that it was machine translated.
You will be asked to specify your target audience: eg. visitors, beginners, students, general public, experts, etc. Please also be as thorough as possible with the Technical Questionnaire so that we can prevent surprises.
You are welcome to submit your proposal in any language and include a machine-translated English version. Please state on your submission that it was machine-translated.
Please support your submission with a clear description of your installation, and discussion of influences and prior art as appropriate. Feel free to provide a link (Peertube, Pixelfed, …) to illustrate the installation. Please also define what the INTERACTIVE aspect of the installation is. It should reflect the idea of code as a gesture in a transparent manner.
Please also be as thorough as possible with the Technical Questionnaire and add a link to a plan or sketch with measurements (metric, please) so that we can avoid surprises.
We invite live coding nodes from all over the world to host their own satellite events prior to or after ICLC 2027. In particular we want to encourage other communities to create opportunities for traveling artists to perform or do a workshop in multiple locations (or on the way from/to Antwerp) and to turn ICLC 2027 into a tour – with Antwerp at its peak. While the committee of the ICLC cannot directly help with funding or organization of your event, an effort will be made to coordinate dates, locations and potential artists.
Please submit your intent to participate with your own event, providing us with a principal contact to your group/organization, the city where the event will take place and any information that might already be definitive (set date, set venue, line-up…). Additionally we invite you to join the channel #iclc-satellite-events on the TOPLAP Discord server to present and discuss your ideas for a satellite event in order to connect organizers as early as possible to make the most out of it.
We ask you to investigate possibilities to apply for local funding to help cover for accommodations, travel costs and in the best case artist fees. We can provide you with a Letter of Intent to support applications for funding, and will publish the date and URL of your event on the ICLC website.
We invite everyone to reflect on the impact that our research and practice has on our environment and ecosystems. Acknowledging this, we are incorporating sustainability and conservation criteria as guidelines for the conference planning. We like to ask participants to take this into consideration before and after the conference. In the spirit of coming together for a live event, we want to encourage in-person attendance, and also encourage that attendees joining us make choices to minimize the impact of their travel with low-carbon options whenever possible. We also commit to fostering connections among attendees and nearby satellite events, to make the most of long distance travel with opportunities to turn your visit into a mini-tour. The presentations and performances of the conference will be live-streamed whenever possible. We are also open to hosting remote presentations when this is the best option. We encourage proposals that consider how live coding practices can be sustained over time, socially, artistically, and environmentally, and how knowledge, tools, and communities can persist beyond the moment of performance.
We’re looking to extend our pool of reviewers. If you’re active in a field related to live coding (in all its facets), and you’re interested in reviewing a paper, workshop or performance, please send an email with a short description and keywords of your field of expertise to iclc@lambdasonic.be
Questions: iclc@lambdasonic.be