Live Coding Music & Algorithmic Patterns W/ Alex McLean

What if you made music live — on stage, in front of an audience — entirely by writing code?

Alex McLean (research fellow, Sheffield; co-founder of Tidal Cycles and Strudel live coding environments; co-curator of Algorave and Alpaca Festival) joins the podcast to explore algorithmic music, live coding performance, and a worldview where everyone is already a technologist.

We discuss South Indian Carnatic konnakol rhythms, the deceptive complexity of counting to five, collaborating with Peruvian khipu scholar Paola Torres Núñez del Prado, and the thorny question of cultural appropriation when heritage algorithms meet modern code. Alex also shares how the first Alpaca Festival united jugglers, textile artists, paper vinyl records, and midnight Algoraves.

🔗 Links & Resources:

• Alex McLean website: https://slab.org
• Tidal Cycles live coding environment: https://tidalcycles.org
• Strudel live coding environment: https://strudel.cc
• Alpaca Festival: https://2025.algorithmicpattern.org/sheffield/

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