Event 1: Roxanne Harris- When Math (Coding) and Music come together

 For my first event, I was lucky enough to attend Roxanne Harris' Zoom meeting. This event centered around how Mathematics can not only intersect with Art, but also how music and coding can exhibit the harmony between Art and Science. Roxanne is a graduate student in design media arts and has an inspirational story as she holds a BA in computer science and music from Yale University. Before meeting Roxanne, I had never heard of live coding in music performance. She explained it's a process where code is written and executed in real-time in the context of a performance. It was especially insightful and technical when she mentioned the importance of scripting and lower-level languages. 


There I am in the top left of the screen!

One of the things that drew my interest was when Roxanne mentioned being inspired by playing video games, as they combine science and Art. I asked her what games she was into, and she responded with Event Horizon, pulling up the game's artwork, which creates an immersive experience. Much of this she tries to achieve through her music and coding. This all originates from her love of math and video games, which was influenced by her father and brother during her upbringing. It created an exploration of the creative and technical aspects of interactive experiences. That's as cool as cool gets, if you ask me. 



At this point in the event, Roxanne pulled up examples of her performances on Instagram. She explained her approach to creating performance Art that combines coding, music, and visuals. As you can see, the vibe and energy are designed not just through music but also through the aesthetics of her backdrop. It was fascinating to watch a video of her live performances, like at MoMA PS1, as she was DJing and sometimes playing an instrument while coding. How is that even possible, I asked myself? What an insanely talented individual. 



Speaking of talented, toward the end of the event, Roxanne demonstrated live coding using Sonic Pi. This was way over my head, as I have no experience in coding, but she explained the principles of Euclidean distribution and how she applies them to her performance. The screenshot above shows an example of how she codes her music, as she must balance efficiency and readability in her live coding notation. Overall, Roxanne really brought to life how someone can combine computer science and Art. This life force in her music and performance is a product of her journey and interests. There were many points where I was just in awe. Because of her, I've played around with Sonic Pi and Strudel just to experience the technology she uses. 

One of the most poignant pieces of advice she gave was about getting involved in the community. For her, it was getting involved in the live coding community, which bridged to building her own events and collaborating with other performers. The Art and Science world, as I am learning in this class, is about collaboration instead of separation, and this joining only enhances both in innovative ways. 

This quote by Professor Vesna really stood out to me: "After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well." —Albert Einstein. Specifically, when it came to Roxanne demonstrating her high level of technical skills as a coder, based on her science background in computer science, her artistic expression through music is a combination of both. Truly, the coalescence of esthetics, plasticity, and form, as Einstein expresses.  Embracing the scientist and artist in us because they are one and the same. 

Since then, I've looked up other live coding artists, like Royce Taylor. Since I'm a huge Daft Punk fan, I can't help but share this fantastic piece of work! 

References

alsoknownasrox. (n.d.). https://alsoknownasrox.com/

Taylor, R. (2022, June 20). Live Coding - Royce Taylor - Medium. Medium. https://medium.com/@royce.taylor789/live-coding-6ac7ead9dbcf

      "That Music You’re Dancing To? It’s Code.” The New York Times, 4 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/style/live-code-music.html.

Wikipedia contributors. (2025b, April 10). Live coding. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_coding

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1- Two Cultures Blog Assignment

Image
 Hi! My name is Jack Chen, and I am a third-year Philosophy major. A couple of things really stood out to me about this week's material, particularly Professor Vesna's lecture videos on the "The Two Cultures" theory that bridges to a Third-Culture Theory and the "Changing Education Paradigms" video. When Professor Vesna asked the question concerning the separation of Science and Art, "Where did it start in your life? Did you have to make a decision, I have to go to Art or I have to go to Science?". This struck me as a question very much rooted in my culture as a Taiwanese Asian American.  As a general statement, Asian culture, especially coming from Immigrant parents, steers their children and future generations away from the humanities. Anybody who wants to become an artist, a writer, or a philosopher is met with confused and disapproving looks, to say the least. This is very analogous to the "Two Cultures" paradigm that Prof Vesna talks...
Read more

Week 3: The Japanese and American contrasting cultural lens of Robotics + Art!

Image
 This week's content about the history and origins of Robotics and Art was very eye-opening, particularly Professor Machiko Kusahara's insights and expertise on Japanese robotics Art. I have always been fascinated, inspired, and entranced by Japanese technologies, mainly how they have influenced Japanese Art and culture. In my blog post this week, I will focus on two contrasting movies that depict Robots in two opposing ways that ultimately reflect how two very different cultures view technology's role in humanity and society.   The two movies that instantly came to mind are "The Terminator," directed by James Cameron, and "Big Hero 6," an animated movie produced by Walt Disney Company. The Terminator was initially released in 1984 and famously stars Arnold Schwarzenegger with his classic line "I'll be back." It has since become a franchise series of movies, TV shows, and other forms of content. It depicts Robots as a futuristic threat to h...
Read more

Week 2- The Juxtaposition of Math and Art

Image
 Despite growing up in an educational and cultural system that separated Math and Art, I always had an instinct to embrace their relationship. In the lecture this week, we discussed the common misconception that one must choose between Art and Science/Math. In fact, the skillset and knowledge of being good at Math is seen as separate from being able to excel in Art, which is furthest away from the truth. After watching the lectures by Professor Vesna and reading through the articles provided, I have come to more of a greater appreciation of understanding the importance that Mathematics plays in art, such as the theory of zero, the Golden Ratio, Einstein's theory, computers, and fractals. There is a deep and rich history that many artists, scientists, and mathematicians have played in sharing, bridging, and creating a new frontier of ideas, dimensions, and art.   Leonardo Da Vinci is, from a popular culture perspective is best known as an artist, but he is much more accomp...
Read more