Liveness in AV performance means the bodily co-presence of performer and audience, not merely that something is happening in real time
The term live in VJing and AV performance carries a double meaning that must be separated. The performance-studies sense (after Erika Fischer-Lichte) is the bodily co-presence of actors and spectators — the performer is physically present in the same time and space as the audience, and this presence is irreducible. The technological sense, borrowed from broadcasting, simply means happening right now — a realtime computer process can be live in this sense with no human performer needed. VJing scholarship insists on the first definition: the VJ performance does not exist without the performing and improvising VJ. Understanding this distinction prevents conflating automated playback with genuine live performance, and it has implications for what live coding AV work claims by calling itself live.
Examples
A DJ pressing play on a pre-recorded set = not live (no bodily agency). A live coder typing Hydra code at a visible laptop on stage = live in both senses.
Assessment
A promoter advertises LIVE visuals for an event where an audio-reactive patch runs automatically from a media server. Explain what is wrong with this claim using the two senses of liveness.