Live coding helps to distinguish between embodied and propositional improvisation

ABSTRACT

Live coding – creating live music by writing and executing computer code – problematises conceptions of improvisation. Live coding differs from improvisation on most acoustic and electroacoustic instruments in three ways: sensory feedback content is not systematically linked to human movement, sensory feedback is temporally disjunct from human movement, and decisions made while improvising are discrete rather than continuously negotiated. Phenomenological, neuroscientific, and psychological literatures are considered in light of the case of live coding to distinguish between what can be called propositional versus embodied improvisation. This distinction is relevant outside the context of musical performance and can guide future empirical work.

KEYWORDS:

• Improvisation
• embodiment
• computer music
• technique
• performance

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Marc Hannaford, Jonathan De Souza, and Thor Magnusson for commenting on earlier drafts, and for challenging me to further develop these ideas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Thanks to the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience Program, Columbia University for supporting this work.