Code Critique: Livecoding Visuals with Hydra

I wanted to post a couple examples from languages that have been developed specifically for livecoding- the act of creating music and visuals with code in front of a live audience.

So here is an example of Hydra, a JavaScript-based language for visuals developed by Olivia Jack which does a wonderful job imitating old school multichannel video synthesis. This was written by Flor De Fuego. Its result can be run here (which remains editable in browser).

• Title: Let The Chaos Rule the Rest
• Author: Flor De Fuego
• Language: Hydra (authored by Olivia Jack)
• Year: 2019

    //Flor de Fuego 
    osc(300,0.1) .contrast(3) .diff(osc(3000,0.1).rotate(5),1) .modulateScale(osc(3,0.1).kaleid(200),-0.9) 
    .modulateScale(osc(6,0.1).rotate(11).kaleid(-200),0.5) .mult(osc(1,0).kaleid(200).scrollX(0.1).scrollY(-0.1),0.8) 
    .blend(shape(200,0.01).scale(0.5,0.5).color(1,0,0) 
    .add(shape(4,0.1).color(1,0,0).scale(0.5,0.5).scrollX(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*0.26),1).rotate(0,0.8) 
    .add(shape(200,0.1).scale(0.5,0.5).scrollX(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*-0.47).color(0,0,1),1),0.5).rotate(0,0.5) 
    .mult(shape(200,0.01).scale(0.5,0.5) 
    .add(shape(4,0.1).color(1,0.5,1).scale(0.5,0.5).scrollX(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*0.26),1).rotate(0,0.8) 
    .add(shape(200,0.1).scale(0.5,0.5).scrollX(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*-0.47),1)).rotate(0,0.5) 
    //.color(1,[0,1],[0,1]) .rotate(0,0.8) .modulateRotate(osc(2),-1) .saturate([3,4,5,6,10].fast(8))
.diff(src(o0).modulateScale(osc(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*20,0.5),0.03).scrollX(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*0.001).scrollY(()=>Math.sin(1*time)*-0.001)) .modulate(o0,()=>Math.sin(1*time)*0.0001) .mult(shape(4,1).scrollY(-1).modulateScale(osc(3,0.5),-0.5)) .luma(0.1) //.add(src(o0).scrollX(0.01),0.001) //.mult(src(o0),0.01) //.luma(2) .out()

Here is another example, written by Flor and Zach Krall in collaboration. Its result can be seen here (which remains editable in browser).

• Untitled
• Authors: Flor De Fuego and Zach Krall
• Language: Hydra (authored by Olivia Jack)
• Year: 2019

                osc(8,-0.1).color(1,1,1.3).scrollY(1,0.1)
                .modulate(osc(10,0.5).modulate(noise(2)))
                .modulate(noise(20,-1))
                .modulateRotate(noise(10,0.1))
                .modulate(osc(8,0.1)
                .modulate(noise(2))).modulate(o0,0.05)
                .modulate(o1,1).out()
                noise(3,0.1).modulate(noise(1),1)
                .contrast(5).modulateRotate(o1)
                .modulate(o1,1).out(o1)

I'd be happy to to discuss the ins and outs of the code (here is the Hydra Github and master function list), but wanted to mention a couple ancillary thoughts-

One of my favorite things about Hydra is the upload button in the web-based version, which sends whatever you’re working on to the Hydra Patterns Twitter Bot, where then anyone in the world can click, and then edit your code, and then publish their version based on yours, all with attribution. I have never met Flor in-person, whose code is above, yet this language brought us together. Likewise, Zach and Flor collaborated on this code across thousands of miles without having yet met in-person.

This is a little bit of a personal aside, but as I’ve become a participant in the livecode/algorave scene, one of my favorite things about it has been an emerging political context, particularly among audience members. Several times I’ve met “disaffected tech workers” who wanted to come see livecoding to “see what could be created with the same tools” that aren’t in the service of big corporate tech. As a programmer who had just left Facebook recently said to me at a recent show “I’d rather create algorithms that make people dance than chase the monetization of data to political and social destruction.”