Projecting live code on screen provides an alternative perceptual channel for deaf audiences

Showing the live code during performance is usually framed as transparency (‘show your working’), but it also creates a non-audio access route. Alex McLean describes a profoundly deaf audience member called Annie who later became a live coder: Annie reported that switching on a strobe during a performance made it much harder to ‘read’ the music. This shows that for some audience members the code on screen is a primary perceptual channel equivalent to hearing the notes. The implication: code projection is both an aesthetic and an accessibility practice.

Examples

At an algorave, a deaf audience member tracks the changes in the projected code in place of listening: the moment the coder deletes a pattern and types a new one is the equivalent of a musical transition.

Assessment

Why might a profoundly deaf audience member object to a strobe light at an algorave that hearing audience members find acceptable? What does this reveal about how live code functions as communication?