Peformance: language〈〉code

Live Performance | A live coding performance reimagining language, place and digital cartographies

RMIT University, Melbourne
Price free with registration
Part of series: THE LIVING CODE

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Artists: Alexandra Cardenás (GER), Flor de Fuego (GER).

In live coding, using a (programming) language is not only a tool but a profound means of expression. Artists working with code are continually navigating a practice that is based in both a knowledge of computer science as well as cultural heritage and human languages. This is reflected by the fast variety of available languages as well as the scope of artistic work where music, visuals, spoken word, dance and poetry blend. This performance revolves around the tension between the abstract logic / formalism of computer science as well as mathematics and the human desire for culture as well as for story-telling.

The performance asks what new cultural abstractions computers have enabled. Additionally, it embraces a resistance to normative, Western cartographic practices by exploring representational forms of mapping place - thereby prompting us to consider non-colonial approaches to mapping placeless spaces, such as the internet. 

The artists will explore how hyperconnected, rhizome-like structures of live coded artworks can be used for cartographic exploration in a sonic and visual territory while challenging their own tools – programming languages that are fundamentally western-influenced. The performance will engage with the performance space and the specific room acoustics involved by utilising a spatial audio system.

This performance is presented by Alexandra Cárdenas and Flor de Fuego, two prolific live coding artists utilising music, visuals and communication practices based in Germany, with curatorial support by Hayden Ryan, an Aboriginal sound scholar and artist of Yuin descent.

This event is part of the series The Living Code

Artists

Alexandra Cárdenas, an artist from Bogota, Colombia, based in Berlin, Germany, seamlessly weaves composition, programming, and improvisation in her live coding practice, crafting experimental electronic music. Fueled by a fascination with the algorithmic behavior of music, her journey explores the boundless possibilities of musicality within code.

Fearlessly pushing boundaries, Alexandra invites audiences to probe the symbiotic relationship between technology and music. Her mission extends to fostering an inclusive world where technical and artistic education is accessible, cultivating a utopian landscape where code becomes a universal language of creative expression.

As a core global Live Coding and Algorave community member, Alexandra co-founded various TOPLAP nodes worldwide, including Toplap Mexico and Toplap Berlin. Teaching and performing worldwide with the free, libre, and open-source live coding languages SuperCollider and TidalCycles, she draws from a diverse educational background in composition, mathematics, and classical guitar studies, culminating in a Master’s Degree in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

Beyond her groundbreaking live coding contributions, Alexandra is deeply committed to empowering women in digital creativity. As a fervent advocate for gender diversity, she co-founded Livecodera, a transnational collective nurturing the skills of women-identifying live coders. Through impactful presentations and enthralling performances, she inspires women worldwide, encouraging them to harness the power of creativity and digital technologies, unlocking their potential and reshaping their environments.
Germany-based Flor de Fuego is a digital-craft artist who primarily works with programming and live coding to create performative experiences.

Her research explores concepts such as the body, space, code, and the chaos-cosmos. She has participated in several international festivals across Europe and the Americas, both individually and in collaboration with other artists.

Flor de Fuego is actively involved in the live coding community. She is also an active community collaborator for Hydra, a live coding browser-based software developed by Olivia Jack.
Hayden Ryan is a Yuin-Walbanja sound artist and scholar from the south east coast of New South Wales, currently residing in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). His sound work explores Indigenous identities, histories and relationships with place through spatial audio, field recording, signal-processing and acoustics.

Hayden is a graduate of New York University’s Master of Music in Music Technology (2022-24); a 2025 Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) resident; currently a Vice-Chancellor’s Indigenous Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow at RMIT University (PhD; Associate Lecturer); and Creative Producer in First Nations Programming at Liquid Architecture . His PhD research investigates how sonic practice and acoustic space influence ways of understanding the environment, history, law and positionality within Indigenous cultures - blending signal-processing, (psycho)acoustics and spatial audio with Indigenous research methods to encapsulate the nuances between First Peoples and sound.

Peformance: language〈〉code

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