SUBSCRIBE

MICHAEL CALORE CULTURE 03.26.19 09:00 AM

DJS OF THE FUTURE DON'T SPIN

RECORDS—THEY WRITE CODE
 SUBSCRIBE

Joanne Armitage (left) and Shelly Knotts of Algobabez perform on the first night of Algorithmic Art Assembly. While the
musicians played, the audience watched a live projection of the code the duo was typing to generate the sounds.
MARIAH TIFFANY

RENICK BELL IS standing in front of his computer at a small table in the

middle of the dance floor. The stoic, bespectacled musician types quickly
and efficiently, his eyes locked to his computer screen. Around him in a
wide circle, the crowd bobs to his music. Sputtering tom rolls, blobby
techno synths, and crystalline cymbal taps blossom and spill out of the
theater's massive surround-sound system. All the lights are off, and the
only illumination in the big room is the glow of Bell's monitor, the soft
red LED backlight on his mechanical gaming keyboard, and a live view of
his PC monitor projected on a wall-sized screen.

Nearly every one of the hundred or

so people in the room, myself
included, is staring intently at the
RELATED action playing out on the screen.

STORIES But what's being projected is not

some psychedelic animation, alien

PETER RUBIN
landscape, or whatever other
's Marshmello visuals you'd expect to see at an
Concert Is the Future of
the Metaverse electronic music gig. What we're
watching is code. Lines and lines of
MICHAEL CALORE
What It's Like to Attend
it, filling up the black screen in a
an Electronic Music white monospace font.
Conference Where the
Beat Never Drops
We look on as Bell's keystrokes call
KEVIN MCFARLAND up a bank of sounds called
What It's Like to Watch
Hodor DJ a 'Rave of
, then another called
Thrones' . Lovely
synthesizer arpeggios start
percolating in the mix. They're
untethered, a bit off-kilter. The
effect is pleasing but edgy, like a warm wind that's blowing a bit too
hard. The snare drum sounds skitter around in the higher registers, but
 there isn't much happening in the low end. Bell decides to fill in some of
SUBSCRIBE

that space. He loads and gives it the command

. A rush of kick drums bombards the speaker stacks,
drowning the room in gigantic waves of jaw-rattling bass. The video
projector starts vibrating violently from the onslaught, and the code on

SHARE the screen melts into a smeary pink blur. The crowd whoops. Bell types
out a message to the attendees, flooding the screen with one repeated
25217 line of text:

"Live-coding" parties such as this—where revelers show up as much for

the if-thens and variables as the beer and snacks—are a recent
phenomenon in underground electronic music culture. And here in the
Bay Area, where the Venn diagram of the Silicon Valley and DJ scenes
finds its overlap, shows like Bell's are right at home. Yet they're not just
more of the tech-meets-techno same. Whereas a traditional EDM show
might feature a performer cueing up sounds or samples on a laptop, DJs
at live-coding shows use computers to play music in a wholly different
way, and to make all new sounds.

The code on display is used to control software algorithms. The musician

synthesizes individual noises (snare hits, bass blobs) on their computer,
then instructs the software to string those instrumental sounds together
based on a set of predefined rules. What comes out bears the fingerprint
of the artist but is shaped entirely by the algorithms. Run the same
routine a second time and the song will sound familiar and contain all
the same elements, but the composition will have a different structure.
This is the apotheosis of electronic creation—half human, half machine.
The events that have sprung up to celebrate this form of generative
composition have already been given a delightful portmanteau:
algoraves.
 SUBSCRIBE

Share

TRACKS

Cookie policy

Computer World
Renick Bell's performance was part of Algorithmic Art Assembly, a
recent two-day festival in San Francisco dedicated to algorithmic music
and art. The afternoons were filled with talks and demonstrations; the
nights were filled with music.

Some of the talks were heavy on mathematics and computer

science—music code on the screen is one thing, but Euclidean formulas
are something else—but all of them were informative. Adam Florin,
creator of the algorithmic audio plug-in Patter, traced the history of
generative music from the middle ages, through John Cage and Iannis
Xenakis in the mid-20th century, up to the software-dominated present.
Musician Jules Litman-Cleper outlined the parallels between the
patterns we see in nature and the patterns exhibited by computer
systems. Producer Mark Fell, who along with artists like Oval released
some pioneering algorithmic dance music in the 1990s, was brought on
stage for a Q&A session.

The visual arts were

Given the hacker-friendly
nature of the algorave art
form, home-built systems
are common. Almost
everyone uses some
combination of open-source
synthesis engines, compiled
represented as well.
Programmer Olivia Jack
demonstrated Hydra, her
live-coding system that
generates trippy visuals in a
web browser. Artist Chelly
Sherman set up a demo of
her VR "kinetic sound
code, and downloaded sculpture" that
SUBSCRIBE

libraries. played on a loop in the

lobby. There was even an
exercise for rules-based
creation in the analog realm,
as the artist Windy Chien handed out short pieces of rope and taught
attendees how to tie a complex knot.

At night the seats were cleared out, the bar was stocked, and the algorave
got underway. Some of the musicians performed with iOS apps and
traditional gear like laptops and USB-powered controllers. Others, like
Kindohm, DVO, Kit Clayton, and Algobabez performed using rules-
based software systems like Max/MSP, SuperCollider, and TidalCycles.
Given the hacker-friendly nature of the algorave art form, home-built
systems are common. Almost everyone uses some combination of open-
source synthesis engines, compiled code, and downloaded libraries.
MacBook Pros abound, but some artists run customized hardware. Bell
uses an Intel NUC mini PC loaded with Linux and a music program of
his own creation called Conductive.

The music itself has a common aesthetic, a kind of shared language.

Much of it leans toward the chaotic and aggressive style of electronica
popularized by the Sheffield, UK, band Autechre, but artists veer in other
directions too. Go to an algorave and you'll hear ambient sets, dub
explorations, and even some straightforward dance music. Just, you
know, with live code projected onto the screen.
 SUBSCRIBE

MARIAH TIFFANY

The Space Is the Place

The venue for the conference, Gray Area, has emerged over the past five
years as a hub for the tech-minded art and music community in San
Francisco. It's situated inside a renovated Mission District movie theater,
which, in the decade before the current tech boom, had fallen into
disrepair and was long occupied by a schlubby dollar store. Now, just in
time to catch a boost from the Silicon Valley cash flooding the city, the
Gray Area operators have transformed the old Grand into a comfortable
and hip meeting place. In recent years, Gray Area has hosted everything
from coding workshops and DIY seminars to quadraphonic synthesizer
performances. During the two days of AAA, attendees (many of them
Bay Area startup workers) filled the main hall and milled about the
grounds, either on the couches in the lobby or on the sun-warmed
benches out front. Apps were name-checked and SoundCloud links were
exchanged over single-origin coffees and vape cartridges. It felt like a
real happening, a gathering of a well-defined community.

The event was put together by Scottish musician and programmer

Thorsten Sideb0ard, who first participated in algoraves in Sheffield and
London. He came back to his adopted home of San Francisco and started
putting together a bill of live-coding artists, and things bloomed from
there.

"I figured if I'm already doing an algorave, I should just make it a whole
weekend festival," he says. He started booking the artists he had met at
the UK algoraves, and they passed along more names. The lineup filled
quickly. "I got kind of carried away with it. It's like I get to assemble my
own private concert of stuff I want to see, and everyone else gets to come
along for the ride."

And though the very first Algorithmic Art Assembly has wrapped,
Sideb0ard says there will definitely be another one next year. "I've got a
couple of people who want to play already. It's been so much fun, I just
SUBSCRIBE

have to do it again."

Get more stories from the future,

delivered today.
SIGN UP

More Great WIRED Stories

• The punishing ecstasy of being a Reddit moderator

• A tap-to-fly helicopter hints at a flying-car future

• B&Bs and the haunting of Hacker House

• How does music affect your brain? Every imaginable way

• What it's like to expose the data of 230 million people

• Looking for the latest gadgets? Check out our latest buying guides
and best deals all year round

• Hungry for even more deep dives on your next favorite topic? Sign
up for the Backchannel newsletter
 SUBSCRIBE

RELATED VIDEO

CULTURE

Dillon Francis Answers DJ Questions From Twitter

DJ Dillon Francis uses the power of Twitter to answer some common questions about DJing. Dillon
Francis’ new single, Hello There ft. Yung Pinch, is available on all music streaming platforms.

#MUSIC #ELECTRONIC MUSIC #DANCE #ART #ALGORITHMS

VIEW COMMENTS
 SUBSCRIBE

POWERED BY OUTBRAIN

COGNIZANT SHELFTREND LOVEEXPLORING TWISTITY HEALTHGRADES

Strategic AI for Got enough sales The most beautiful NCAA's Sweet 16 10 healthy snacks if
Business: Download history to stand out? towns and villages in Begins Today, you have diabetes
your Free Report SPONSORED the UK Features The Top 12 SPONSORED
Today SPONSORED Seeded Teams
SPONSORED SPONSORED

MORE CULTURE

THE MONITOR

The DoJ Thinks Netflix Should Be Eligible for Oscars

ANGELA WATERCUTTER
 SUBSCRIBE

INVESTIGATIONS

Rabbits Are Now Hollywood's Creepiest Creatures

JASON PARHAM

VIDEOGAMES

10 Must-Know Tips for Mastering Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

JULIE MUNCY
 SUBSCRIBE

TECH IN TWO

5G’s Potential Health Hazard, Plus Zuck’s Deleted Blog Posts

ALEX BAKER-WHITCOMB

THE MONITOR

Black Panther 's Shuri Is Getting a Show. Sorta

ANGELA WATERCUTTER
 SUBSCRIBE

CANTINA TALK

Here's What Star Wars: Episode IX Looks Like. Maybe

GRAEME MCMILLAN

GET OUR NEWSLETTER

WIRED’s biggest stories delivered to your inbox.

Enter your email

SUBMIT
 SUBSCRIBE

FOLLOW US ON PINTEREST
See what's inspiring us.

FOLLOW

SUBSCRIBE ADVERTISE SITE MAP PRESS CENTER FAQ ACCESSIBILITY HELP CUSTOMER CARE

CONTACT US SECUREDROP COUPONS NEWSLETTER WIRED STAFF JOBS RSS

CNMN Collection
© 2018 Condé Nast. All rights reserved.
Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 5/25/18)
and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 5/25/18). Your California Privacy Rights. The material on this site
may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of
Condé Nast. Ad Choices.

3 FR E E A R T ICL E S L E FT Flash Sale: Save 50% Sign In or Register if

Subscribe you're already a close
T H IS M O NT H
subscriber.