This excerpt from Live Coding: A User’s Manual describes live coding as a unique hybrid art form that questions traditional assumptions regarding knowledge and challenges the categorical divisions of epistemology. Indeed, live coding is a multidisciplinary practice that draws on various modes of knowledge and the expression of said knowledge. If one is to envision knowledge as a spectrum ranging from the tacit and unconscious to the structured and explicitly taught, live coding is a practice that wills the practitioner to utilize both ends of the spectrum. And in doing so, live coding “demonstrates the coexistence, cooperation, and even complementarity between seemingly divergent knowledge paradigms” (219).

I have always felt that much of the appeal of live coding lies in its highly experimental nature. The philosophy of live coding encourages experimentation and contingency—in fact, it is very much defined by this acceptance of indeterminacy. Though the practice may demand some form of background competence (in computing and art, for example), the knowledge required most by live coding is that which enables one to interact with uncertainty. Live coding is thus an art form that is fueled by no-how rather than know-how; there is no set methodology or script that it abides by. It was fascinating to engage with the thought that the very existence of live coding, in embracing indeterminacy as a core tenet, prompts conversation regarding the subsequent need for alternative ways of and terms for understanding knowledge at large.