International Conference on Live Coding

It has been ten years since the first ICLC call for participation, which proposed “[…] exploring liveness in symbolic abstractions, and understanding the perceptual, creative, productive, philosophical and cultural consequences.” In the subsequent decade, we have collectively and collaboratively experimented with varying levels of live coding abstraction, developed domain-specific languages, and explored the levels of agency offered by models created manually, or sometimes with the assistance of learning algorithms. We have invented and played with numerous interfaces to interact with algorithms and the world around us during performances. These explorations revolve around defining what processes we actually want to showcase, and in which formats we want to express them, while “thinking algorithmically” with an audience.

On this 9th edition of the conference, we invite the community to reflect about liveness and its many forms and consequences within live coding. We believe the tension between what is live and what is not is a key element of live coding. What effects does it have on the processes, technologies and forms in the performance? How do the many forms of liveness impact and transform the hybridization between the digital/algorithmic and the material? How does liveness relate to and/or define the socio-cultural aspects of live coding communities

ICLC 2025 invited proposals related to this year’s theme, liveness, as highlighted by any of the following or even some other topic:

• Liveness in the social and cultural contexts of live coding

• Liveness & algorithms

• Liveness & interfaces

• Liveness & remoteness

• Liveness & software agents

• Live coding languages that integrate other artistic vocabularies

• Forms of artistic expression that integrate live coding

• Hybrid interfaces and offscreen tools in live coding performance

• Hybridization between the digital and the material in live coding practices

• Creating and sustaining live coding communities

• The social state of live coding: diversity, equity, inclusion and the TOPLAP manifesto after 10 years of ICLC

• Accessibility in live coding languages, interfaces, and performances

Ten years after the first ICLC, we encourage our community to leverage its multidisciplinary strengths and discover new boundaries to discover, expand or mutate.

Accordingly, the 2025 program will take shape along the lines of the following session topics: Specialized Tools and DSLs, Live Coding Beyond Computers and Interfaces, Audiovisual Live Coding, Speculative Futures, Communities and Artistic Practices, Collaborative Live Coding.

Organized by: ICLC