Skip to main content

performing code

Performing Code Exhibition

5 April - 8 June 2018

Monday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

gallery@calit2
First Floor, Atkinson Hall, UC San Diego


Performing Code Stream
5 April 2018
, 5 p.m.
Calit2 Auditorium Live Coding and OFFAL

Performance stream from Melbourne

Curated by Amy Alexander

6 p.m. Reception


Performing Code Live

7 June 2018
, 7 p.m.
Calit2 Auditorium ALGOBABEZ Performance and Panel

Moderated by Amy Alexander

8 p.m. Reception


Performing Code will feature performances and an exhibition featuring the work of musician/audiovisualist Shelly Knotts, an artist who is active in the live coding community. Live coding is the practice of writing code live in front of an audience, usually in the context of creating music or real-time visuals. Live coding investigates performative coding as a means of addressing “liveness” in computer performance. But a broader concern is making more transparent the processes by which humans create and improvise algorithmically.

In addition to her live coding work, Knotts’s research and practice addresses improvisation and collaboration in networked music. For January-May 2017 Knotts is Artist-in-Residence at the School of Chemistry at Newcastle University, where she has explored ways to use sound to represent drug design in useful ways, developed an audiovisual sound installation, written algorithms to produce graphic scores for musicians, and is organizing a chemistry themed Algorave, in which Algorave artists are invited to make dance music and visuals from the data with which her team is working.

Shelly Knotts is a data musician currently based in Newcastle, UK.* She performs live-coded and network music internationally, collaborating with computers and other humans. She is studying for a PhD in Live Computer Music at Durham University with a focus on collaboration in Network Music. As well as performing at numerous Algoraves and Live Coding events, current collaborative projects include network laptop bands BiLE and OFFAL (Orchestra For Females And Laptops), and live coding performance [Sisesta Pealkiri] with Alo Allik. Shelly has organized Network Music Festival since 2012. Knotts is currently in the process of relocating to Melbourne, Australia. She will be based in Melbourne during the period of the exhibition.