currently… summer 2023

What’s up right now? (June 10, 2023)

ICLC Nicolairkerk 23 april 2023 © Paulus van Dorsten-57
Alicia Champlin performing Neowise 5.8 V/E at Nikolaikerk in Utrecht on April 23, 2023. Photo: © Paulus van Dorsten-57
  • This year has been a blur so far. I’ve spent October to April completely immersed in the world of ICLC, the International Conference on Live Coding, as a part of the core organizing team for this year’s conference hosted in Utrecht, NL. The hosting organization is a consortium of TOPLAP nodes in Barcelona, Karlsruhe, Dusseldorf, Utrecht, and Ljubjana, together riding the wave of momentum from on-the-fly, a 2 year European Project which was designed and executed by these 5 groups to foster connections between local livecoding communities. Personally I participated as a co-chair of the Performance committee and the chair of Communications and of Video submissions, and was heavily involved in the peer review and the website/catalog. ICLC 2023 ran in April, to huge success, and was one of the most gratifying projects I’ve had the pleasure to be part of. Check out the little ‘aftermovie‘ for my official comments.
  • In addition to the ICLC itself, we (Nik & I) did a mini-tour of satellite events, and we had a chance to perform twice in Karlsruhe, one of which with the bow chime in a lovely brunch concert.
  • Returning home to Barcelona, we joined our local TOPLAP BCN with all remaining energy, to host the 5th annual VIU festival, full of performances and meetups and flush with fresh inspiration from ICLC, and finishing on a high note with a brutal 7-hour Algorave on April 29th. VIU is becoming a bit like an afterparty destination for ICLCers to extend their trips and have more opportunities to perform.
  • Let’s just stack on some more, shall we? The Generative Art Museum (TGAM) is next up, where a lineup of livecoders (yours truly included on June 14) will showcase the art of the algorithm in a series of A/V sets throughout the week of this popup museum’s first splash.
  • With a momentary break, we are lining things up for the remainder of the summer. On the 8th of July, I’ll play in the traditional mid-summer Alograve in Barcelona, traditionally the last big event before the summer break. But at end of July, I’ll be heading, along with Nik & 6 other locals, to the Alps of Slovenia for our 2nd visit to the annual PIFcamp in Soča. Along the way, we’ll stop in Venice for a 20-hour whirlwind visit, then continue on our pilgrimage to the source of the Soča River. This time I’ll be presenting a workshop together with Julia Mugica to DIY a peer-to-peer network of wearable biosensor instruments that can make music together based on the wearers’ heartbeats.
  • Following PIFcamp, we’ll head to Germany for a few weeks for family time and have a bit of a break, then a quick weekend tour of Berlin before heading back to the daily grind in Barcelona.
  • Looking forward to September 30, 2023, I’ll be heading to Lisbon, Portugal to collaborate in a livecoding concert at the notorious Gallery Zé dos Bois.
  • On the horizon for winter, I’m looking forward to the Algorithmic Pattern Salon in November, and in January 2024, we’ll have another edition of Algobiente.
  • While obviously I’m staying busy and I’m working full time in my ‘other life’, as always I’m open to new directions and collaborations. Please reach out with any ideas/opportunities, and do feel free to forward my details (portfolio, cv, abstract, etc.) to anyone you think would be interested.
  • I’m staying otherwise active with the local TOPLAP node, including monthly live-coding improv sessions and the occasional algorave. Hope to see you out there!

For more updates and specific events (when I have time to keep up!), please check out the newsfeed. Please stay in touch – you can find me easily on LinkedIn, fb, ig, and twitter.