Live coding[1] (sometimes referred to as 'on-the-fly programming',[2] 'just in time programming') is a performance practice centred upon the use of improvised interactive programming and real-time computing (RTC) in creating sound and image based digital media. Live coding is particularly prevalent in computer music, combining algorithmic composition with improvisation.[3] Typically, the process of writing is made visible by projecting the computer screen in the audience space, with ways of visualising the code an area of active research.[4] There are also approaches to human live coding in improvised dance.[5]
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TOPLAP (The (Temporary|Transnational|Terrestrial|Transdimensional) Organisation for the (Promotion|Proliferation|Permanence|Purity) of Live (Algorithm|Audio|Art|Artistic) Programming) is an informal organization formed in February 2004 to bring together the various communities that had formed around live coding environments.[6] The TOPLAP manifesto asserts several requirements for a TOPLAP compliant performance, in particular that performers' screens should be projected and not hidden. TOPLAP has had a number of international meetings, including the LOSS Livecode festival in 2007, and in 2009 received organisational funding from the PRS Foundation for its UK activities.
Academic research into live coding is ongoing at a number of institutions including the Princeton Sound Lab, the University of Cologne, the Queensland University of Technology and the Digital Studios at Goldsmiths, University of London. However live coding environments are generally free/open source software efforts and so are in part or wholly developed by independent practitioners.
A Study in Keith is a musical live coding performance in Impromptu by Andrew Sorensen. The first two minutes (1:56) are silent, while the performer writes the program that will produce the introduction of the piece. From then on, he modifies the code on the fly in order to evolve the composition.