First sounds and the live-coding ethos

This module is the front door to the whole curriculum: your first act as a live coder. The whole task is the one every algorave performer repeats at every gig — open an editor in front of witnesses, make sound from code while it runs, and stand behind the process. In a club, the projected screen replaces the DJ’s hidden laptop lid; here, your browser tab and a one-paragraph artist statement play that role. No rig is needed: the capstone deliberately uses zero-install browser environments so a laptop and a URL are the entire setup.

The arc runs from watching to doing to declaring. Start with what live coding actually is and why the editor gets projected — the definition of live coding and TOPLAP’s show-us-your-screens principle are your first stops. Then get sound happening fast: the fact that Strudel runs entirely in the browser at strudel.cc gets you into an editor in seconds, and the MiniREPL atom shows the first supported exercise — edit a drum pattern inside the docs, press play, hear the change. Repeat that edit-run-listen loop until it feels reflexive; when something sounds wrong, the embrace-error principle tells you to bend it into material rather than stop. Finally, write the statement: the algorave atoms (what an algorave is, how the movement spread, the dancefloor social contract) plus the TOPLAP manifesto and organisation give you the tradition to place yourself in, and the artist-programmer identity gives you the stance to claim.

The required atoms gate the capstone directly — you cannot make the sound or write an honest statement without them. Supporting atoms deepen the picture: manifesto philosophy (algorithms as thoughts, self-changing programs), accessibility arguments, cross-disciplinary extensions like hacked choreography, and community venues such as Eulerroom for watching real sets.