An algorave is a dance event whose music is composed live as algorithms, with the code shown to the audience

An algorave (a portmanteau of ‘algorithm’ and ‘rave’) is a rave-style dance event where performers write and modify music-generating code live on stage rather than replaying pre-made tracks, hitting execute so the resulting music plays in real time. Two features are definitional: the algorithmic, improvised origin of the sound (genuine on-the-spot composition, not merely triggering pre-written scripts), and the visibility of the process — the code is projected on a screen so the audience can watch it being written and changed while they dance. This is what separates an algorave from a DJ set replaying recorded material and from a conventional laptop concert where the screen stays hidden: the process, not just the result, is on display, and a feedback loop runs from code to sound to dancing crowd and back to the performer. Any kind of algorithmic music qualifies so long as the process is visible; a DJ playing pre-rendered tracks is not doing algorave even if those tracks were themselves generated algorithmically, because the algorithm is not being worked live. Algorave names a performance format and community practice, not a fixed genre.

Examples

A performer opens a blank editor, types a drum pattern in TidalCycles, then progressively adds layers and transformations as the code scrolls on a projector overhead and the crowd dances. To a newcomer the projected code can look ‘just like when a computer crashes’ while producing danceable music.

Assessment

Distinguish an algorave from a regular electronic-music concert, from a DJ set, and from a laptop set of pre-made algorithmic tracks: what must be present live for the term to apply, and what must the audience be able to see? Explain the significance of the projected screen (including for deaf or hard-of-hearing audience members).