Deadmau5, Derek Bailey, and the Laptop Instrument – Improvisation, Composition, and Liveness in Live Coding

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Parkinson, Adam and Bell, Renick. 2015. Deadmau5, Derek Bailey, and the Laptop Instrument – Improvisation, Composition, and Liveness in Live Coding. In: , ed. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Live Coding. Leeds: ICSRiM, School of Music, University of Leeds. ISBN ISBN 9780853163404 [Book Section]

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Official URL: http://iclc.livecodenetwork.org/papers.html

Abstract or Description

Dance music superstar Deadmau5 and the improvising guitarist Derek Bailey represent, through their writing and practice, two very different approaches to performing live. By critically considering the practice of live coding in relation to these divergent approaches, we discuss live coding with regards to where the liveness lies and how the laptop and software are treated as a musical instrument. Each practice uses the laptop as a musical tool in a very different way. Live coding uses the laptop as an instrument in a manner that draws upon the techniques and strategies of free improvisation, in contrast to Deadmau5’s notion of laptop as playback device and the live performance as spectacle. We discuss Dead- mau5’s practice in relation to Francisco Lopez’s notion of the possibilities of electronic performance, and ideas about labour and liveness.

Item Type:

Book Section

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19350