Artists and Hackers

Art Tools: Live coding with Hydra

Art Tools is our new segment on experimental digital tools of creation. We speak with Olivia Jack on her browser-based visual live coding synthesizer called hydra.

Episode notes

Today we’re kicking off a new segment called Art Tools, a series of mini episodes with the creators of innovative and experimental software for making art, music and other creative expression.

In our very first episode Critical Code we spoke with the artist Sarah Groff Hennigh-Palermo, who created her own library and language La Habra for making live visual artwork with code. Today we’re speaking with the artist and programmer Olivia Jack on her browser-based visual livecoding software Hydra.

Hydra is a web-based video synthesizer. Olivia describes live coding as writing code in real time to make visuals and/or music as part of a performance. Originally begun as a series of explorations in the browser, Hydra is now used by a large community of live coding performers who perform in clubs and other venues, as well as in online streamed performances throughout the pandemic. There are many resources for getting started with Hydra, and a number of spin-off projects including PIXELJAM, also by Olivia, which allows multiple performers to do live coding together. There are also periodic online meetups where live coders worldwide meet up to talk and show off their works created with Hydra.

In this episode Olivia speaks on her background, the experiments that led to the creation of Hydra, and the choices she’s made in its design that has led to adoption by a large community of live coders creating visual works in the browser with Hydra.

Triggering the Troll Bots

Ryan Kuo is an artist and writer creating projects that are diagrammatic and evoke a person or people arguing. In this episode I speak with Ryan and his collaborator Tommy Martinez about Faith, an 'easily triggered' AI voice assistant.

Episode notes

Feeding Oral History to Technology

Stephanie Dinkins is a transmedia artist creating platforms for dialog about race, gender, aging, and our future histories. In this episode we speak about her conversations with the advanced AI Bina48 and her work building conversational agents based on oral history.

 

Show notes

Yes No Wave and Indonesia Net Audio

Since 2007 artist Wok The Rock has run Yes No Wave, a Javanese net audio record label that makes music available for free legal download. Yes No Wave albums are released under a creative commons license allowing free non-commercial use and the freedom to remix the music.

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Reclamation and Worldbuilding in the Iyapo Repository

The Iyapo Repository is a digital resource library built to preserve the digital histories and legacy of people of African descent. Our guest is Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde (Ayo), co-creator along with Salome Asega.

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El Paquete Semanal: An Offline Internet in Cuba

In this episode we talk about the phenomenon of the offline internet in Cuba known as El Paquete Semanal or The Weekly Package. Our guests are Cuban artist Nestor Siré and American artist Julia Weist who research, intervene and make art about El Paquete.

Episode notes

Community Memory and the Computing Counterculture

In this episode we're digging deep into the past of a radical history of personal computers, community networks and the rise of people's technology. Our guest is engineer Lee Felsenstein, who relates a story of activism and engineering.

Episode information

Can a Programming Language be a Radical Community?

p5.js is the name of a creative coding library and platform that aims to make coding inclusive and accessible for a wide range of people. We speak to the team that supports the language on how they make space for contributors within its nurturing, intentional community.

Art, Tools, and Activism

In 2021 what it means to be an artist working with technology is wide open, and we're here to explore it in detail, especially looking at issues of creativity and equity. In today's episode we're talking about art and activism, toolbuilding and technology.

Critical Code

In this episode, we meet artists and hackers that aren't satisfied with the limitations of programming languages. Our guests are Sarah Groff Hennigh-Palermo, Ramsey Nasser, Daniel Temkin, and Anuoluwapo Karounwi.