“What is the difference between live coding a piece of music and composing it in the sequencer (live coding an animation and drawing one)? In other words, how does live coding affect the way you produce your work, and how does it affect the end result?”
While showing my friends some of the examples from class, I was asked this question and wondered to myself “what makes coding it live so special?” I think that after reading the results of this survey, I realized that, to the live coder, what makes live coding unique is the risk that comes with it. It heavily relies on improvisation (despite the practice that goes into a performance), the live coder could have a new idea while performing and decide to try it out, giving a completely unexpected outcome. But does this risk hinder the live coder’s creativity because of the notion that this performance has to be perfect?
The risk factor associated with live coding is also why I don’t think that live coding can become fully computer generated. It will take out the factor of human error, making it appear the same as any other composition, with the only difference being that the audience can view the code. Moreover, it was mentioned that the code written during a performance is a representation of the live coder’s style. If live coding becomes computer generated, I think that it would lose this “style” that makes each live coding performance unique.