The Open Source Concert Programmer

Open Source has revolutionized computing. Here is an interesting development that involves coding and concert programming. A live coded concert. Talk about getting your Geek on 😉

The Concert Programmer, Andrew Sorensen’s Creative Computing

Imagine a future where concert programmers are as common a fixture in the world’s auditoriums as concert pianists. At the Open Source Convention (OSCON) last month Andrew Sorenson* live-coded the generative algorithms that produced the music that the audience heard.

The language that Andrew is using in the video is called Extempore, designed by programmer Benjamin Swift specifically for live coding of multimedia experiences. Learn more about it and try it for yourself on the official Extempore site.

*Andrew Sorensen is an artist-programmer whose interests lie at the intersection of computer science and creative practice. Andrew is well known for creating the programming languages that he uses in live performance to generate improvised audio-visual theatre. He has been invited to perform these contemporary audiovisual improvisations around the world. Andrew is a Senior Research Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology and is the author of the Impromptu and Extempore programming language environments.