Behind The Screens: Maja Kraljič
An interview with Maja Kraljič, webdevloper and live coder.
Maja Kraljič is a webdeveloper who has started exploring livecoding during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this interview, we’d like to talk about her practices and tools, as well as work in the community and the way she copes with the radical and drastic changes in their practice resulting from the corona crisis.
- What was your first encounter with live coding and what are your sources of inspiration (may also be outside of the live coding practice)?
Years ago, while I was becoming more and more interested in open source software, I came across Sonic Pi. It intrigued me, especially because I have some music background (I have been playing guitar since I was 12 years old) and I also like to code. So it was a perfect introduction into the world of livecoding. Then in 2020 we started to meet at KodoVŽivetja — livecoding meetups — organized by Ljudmila in Ljubljana, Slovenia and there I became curious about other possibilities within the livecoding world.
My inspiration mainly comes from outside of the livecoding world. Although I love to watch and listen to algoraves and other audio/visual performances I am inspired by interaction with artists that are not necessarily working with music or coding, for example last year during the first lockdown a collaboration with Norwegian multidisciplinary artist Eili Bråstad Johannessen [https://eili.art] resulted in livecoding music in TidalCycles for a short film titled MANI.
https://vimeo.com/427279482
2. What are your preferred platform(s) to use and why?
Since I attended the TidalCycles online beginners course led by Alex McLean in April 2020 I livecode audio only with TidalCycles. I find it super simple to use (however I must admit the setup is a bit tricky), I can use it in one of my favorite coding environments and even if I am using it now for almost one year there is still so much to learn about it. So even if you know only basic syntax you can definitely have a lot of fun with it. That’s also the reason I have earlier this year prepared a short TidalCycles online workshop for beginners in Slovenian language (organized by Ljudmila.org). I would love to invite more beginners to livecoding and/or coding in general to try it out.
Lately I have been also exploring Hydra for visuals. Besides the fantastic tool I also love Hydra’s meetups and community. It is amazing how inclusive space they were able to build and even as a first time visitor of Hydra’s meetup I immediately felt at home.
3. Are there any platforms, tools or extensions that you develop yourself and if so can you elaborate why and for what purpose?
For now I am focused on using platforms developed by others, but I am determined to continue creating audio samples in my local environment, may it be the sound of water drops in my bathroom or part of Berlin’s soundscape. This way I feel more connected with the sounds created while livecoding and the whole experience becomes more personal.
4. How has live coding influenced your practice of making and thinking about art?
“Traditional” approaches, especially in classical music rely heavily on the musical score that requires us to play according to the “instructions” written on a piece of paper. However livecoding is done live, you can start with some prepared code or an empty screen and you can use mathematical concepts to create music.
While livecoding I always get a sense of competing against time — especially in coding from scratch where all code needs to be typed in — as if time was this runaway train that is behind me, trying to get my focus away from the music itself. Perhaps this feeling comes from my experiences of playing the guitar — where it is possible to play with closed eyes. Recently I have also noticed I am becoming more and more interested in creating an emotional response in the listener, using sound as a tool for storytelling.
5. In what form are randomness or other algorithms applied in your practice or performance? Do you try to pursue serendipity and how or why not?
I like serendipity while exploring samples and playing with functions in TidalCycles — much more while I practice than during the performance because I like to know what kind of sound will be generated with specific code. I like to “hear” it before it is played, before I execute it.
While experimenting I have stumbled upon many great snippets. I usually save them in a special “ideas” file to be later able to explore them further or include them in new compositions.
Generally I always want to retain quite a lot of control, however randomness gives my livecoded music different dynamics and assurance the performance will never sound exactly the same. While playing I also noticed a negative side of the randomness, in particular when you hear one random sequence which is amazing, but you have not been able to record it or recreate it ever since.
6. Could you share a sneak-peek into any upcoming projects or things you are currently working on?
Currently I am preparing material for another short film. I will be again using my own samples and this time I will be more careful to properly document it. On the previous short film project I didn’t save all the code and changes and had later trouble recreating the tracks. As I am a big open source fan I will make sure that all samples, code and tracks used will be freely available in my code repository.
7. Do you have any other thoughts you would like to share with the readers?
I consider myself still quite a beginner in livecoding, however, I had many nice opportunities for collaborations in the last year, and saying yes to these projects in the first place, even when I was thinking I am not ready yet, was the best decision I could make.
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This article is part of the Behind The Screens series of Creative Coding Utrecht — a series of events where digital artists and live coders create a piece in ten minutes.
Watch Season 1 // Watch season 2 // More interviews
The Behind The Screens series is sponsored by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.
