- Published on
Aquatic Algorave: A Night of Livecoded Music and Visuals in SF
- Authors
- Name
- Nes Croft
- @nescroft
Aquatic Algorave Recap: A Night of Livecoded Music and Visuals
Last night, TIAT gallery on Powell Street transformed into an underwater world for a night of aquatic-themed raving. If you're unfamiliar with algoraves, they're dance parties where the music and visuals are created with code in real time. The artists write and modify code live on stage, and you can watch their screens as the beats and visuals evolve.
San Francisco's livecoding scene has been steadily growing, and this event showcased the community's range—from established international artists to local newcomers making their debut.
The Artists
Harte Echtzeit - A scientist and sonic artist from Melbourne, Australia who uses Tidal Cycles to explore the intersection of algorithms and sound. His Gravitational Wave Field Recordings project transforms data from actual gravitational wave detections into music. He's also a co-founder of the futur AAA live coding festival.
From Vacuum - A San Francisco-based visual/audio artist whose tagline "turning vacuum into visual universes" captures their approach. They provided projection visuals that brought the aquatic theme to life.
R Tyler - A local "algorithmic dance music futurist" whose Live Code Volume series on Bandcamp documents his explorations in generative dance music.
Nes Croft - Performed using Beat DJ, a livecoding tool for real-time sample manipulation. Also teaches Beat DJ workshops at TIAT.
Glossing - A livecoding artist and strudel contributor also known for making ambient music with the moniker nullsimplex performed their first livecoded set ever!
Brandon Tai - A multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and a new strudel instructor at TIAT also made their live performance debut.
Ox K - Performed their first set ever, using Beat DJ. Ox K learned livecoding through the Beat DJ workshop series at TIAT, taught by Nes Croft.
First Sets and New Voices
Three artists—Glossing, Brandon Tai, and Ox K—performed their first live sets at this event. Algoraves have always been welcoming spaces for newcomers, and seeing new performers step up keeps the scene vital. Ox K's journey from workshop student to performer in particular shows how community education can lower barriers to entry for experimental music performance. To start your own livecoding journey with Beat DJ checkout our online course here.
What's Next
The livecoding community in SF continues to grow. Up next: Livecoding Beat DJ Showcase on January 26th, featuring more performances using the Beat DJ livecoding environment.