In “Creative Know-How and No How” the author discusses the practice of live coding through the lens of artistic research and epistemology. The reader is quickly thrown questions like ‘what does live coding know?’ or ‘what does live coding think?’ From this analysis, there are a couple of points which grabbed my attention. For one, this chapter presents an interesting characterization of live coding. It quotes Brian Massumi in explaining that, instead of a predefined artwork, live coding presents “a movement precise with training but still open to regeneration.” Furthermore, it reinforces that the performance of live code makes visible a language deeply embedded into our day-to-day but one “in which still few are so fluent.” In doing so, it highlights how live coding sits at the crossroads of many disciplines. That is to say, it provides visibility to code (CS) through the production of music and visuals (Art), and gives insight into the human behind the screen writing this code.
“Live coders appropriate and redirect (hack) a specific form of technical knowledge and language which is then played with.”
The author also characterizes live coding as a play experience through Robert Calloi’s framework of Play. In particular, mentioning the autotelic nature of live coding (as play) stood out to me. If live coding, like play, is autotelic (inherently without function or purpose beyond itself), how can we then address the know-how and think-how of live coding.
Finally, through this excerpt I keep being brought back to our class on composition, when Professor Sherwood kept telling us “just try random things until it sounds decent”. It is also through trial and error only with which I’ve made any progress on my composition project. In response to this reading, I understand how this artistic experimentation, art as the process, applies to our class and my own journey of live coding. I’ve been really enjoying exploring a field not as constrained as others, and would love to see how it will keep impacting the study of knowledge.