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Stung Eye

The eye of the bee holder.

Sound + Code = Jam (Vol 1)

This past Saturday (July 23, 2022) marked the first in a series of in-person events focused on experimenting with sound and code. That’s right, we spent the day hacking music at New Media Manitoba in the beautiful Dingwall Building!

We had 18 folks at our peak, which is an amazing turnout for a niche event. The day went by in a flash. Like a good party, I was left feeling energized and inspired, but also with a melancholic sense that there wasn’t nearly enough time to get to know / catch-up with all those in attendance.

The day started with some lightning talks on Sonic Pi, Chuck, a musical instrument built using Scratch, and the wonders of Ableton Link. The rest of the day was full of cool experiments like:

There were also folks with awesome hardware gear and lots of great conversations on the possibilities of combining code with music. Some attendees assembled instrument and drum kit sample packs and surfaced this great CC0 fake acoustic drum kit pack.

Based on the event turnout, I’m already pondering Sound + Code Volume 2. I’d love for the second event to be slightly more structured to ensure that everyone has a chance to work on a collaborative project.

A big thanks to New Media Manitoba for the event space and to Prairie Dev Con for the delicious lunch. (The 2022 Winnipeg Prairie Developer Conference will be this November 7th and 8th!) I’d also like to thank the Winnipeg Game Collective community for being the initial inspiration for the event.

To get a better sense of what’s possible in the space of algorithms and music, I’ve included a few videos below.

The remaining Sound + Code crew at day’s end on Saturday, July 23rd, 2022. Wish I had thought to snap a few shots when everyone was around.

DJ_Dave live-codes her track Easy over the course of 13 minutes.

DJ_Dave is an NYC-based experimental electronic-pop artist, DJ, and producer, who creates & performs her music using code – a style called algorave – and is one of the first to do so in a pop-sensible context.”

Yorkshire vs. Tokyo Live Coding Showdown - 2.5 hours of live coding from various performers.

“Expect improvised beats, melodies, and noise in a variety of genres, all executed through live coding in various systems. It’s all improvised live music, not DJing, so no one will have ever heard any of this music before, not even the performers.”