Who hasn’t ever wondered while dancing in a techno session, what are the artists behind the computer screen really doing? Are they filtering sound frequencies or are they checking their e-mails? “Show us your screen” is the phrase that the live coders’ collective Top Lap has chosen in order to make clear the fact that in live coding practices the artist’s share their screens and codes during the performance. In the same way that the audience can see and understand how a guitarist or a pianist relates to their instrument, it is possible to see a screen where algorithms are typed, cursors move through lines of code and define parameters. Therefore, a live coding performance can be understood as digital craftsmanship, loaded with an enormous dose of honesty and transparency.
From this premise, the musician Eloi Isern aka Eloi el Bon Noi and the visual artist Citlali Hernández aka Turbulente, both regular live coders of the Barcelona scene, present an audiovisual performance based on the use of programming code in real time in their own creative approach. In “Show us your screen” the visible code generates image and sound, but moreover, as in a game of infinite feedback loops, Turbulente starts from the screen filled with code of his partner and uses it to create audio reactive textures and visual narratives. This performance is about code manipulating code, sound creating visual choreographies, and overlapping screens overlapping code. Code, code, code.
“Show us your screen” is also an electronic session with a high dose of IDM and glitch with a prominent role for improvisation and audio-reactive visuals. In this way the music stimulates the image that responds in a synchronous way creating a dialogue between the two artists.
The audiovisual live coding performance has been presented in several festivals such as: Influx (Barcelona, 2023), Tungsteno (Barcelona, 2024), Numa Circuit (Tenerife, 2024), Ex-Abrupto (Barcelona, 2024), BotCamp (Eufònic, Terres de l’Ebre 2024), Bone X Iklectik (Barcelona, 2024).
Turbulente is an industrial designer and transdisciplinary artist. Her work focuses on the relationship between the body, open source electronics and performance art. She actively participates in the Barcelona live coding scene, experimenting with Hydra and P5Live to create her own particular visual universe. She is a professor of interactive design and combines her teaching activity with live performances. Together with other livecoders and artists, she has participated at festivals and venues such as Algopolis in Ljudmjla (Slovenia, 2022), at the 360 dome of Cosmocaixa (Barcelona, 2022), Festival Poesia en Voz Alta (Cd. Mexico, 2021), at the International Congress on Live Coding (Utrecht, 2023), Festival Influx (Barcelona,2023), Digital Impact Exhibtion (Barcelona, 2023), Hangar (Barcelona, 2021-2023), ISEA (Barcelona, 2022), Ars Electronica Garden (Barcelona, 2022), Konvent PuntZero (Berga, 2022), Dispositivos Virales Exhibition (Cd. Mexico, 2022), Biennal de la Ciutat i la Ciència (Barcelona, 2021, 2022), Festival ECOSS (Barcelona, 2021), Festival Loop (Barcelona, 2021), Festival Dyscorpia (Canada/online-2020), Festival JustMad (Madrid-2015, 2017), among others.
She teaches at various academic institutions in Spain, as an expert in applied interaction for artistic and design projects, with experience in electronics, tangible interfaces and digital fabrication techniques.
Eloi Isern (AKA Elo el Bon Noi) Eloi el Bon Noi is a composer and live coder who prides himself on being able to perform his own work with his own means. He has participated in many artistic events using the code in a creative way. He also gives workshops and lectures on live coding. He has been selected to present his work at festivals such as LEM (2022), Mutek (2022), VIU (2021, 2023), Dimecres de So i cos (2023), Generator (2023) or Influx (2023) among others. In 2023 he presented his work Eloi el Bon Noi i les Mà quines de terrabastall at the ICLC, the international live coding conference held in Utrecht. He forms a performance duet based on spoken word and live coding together with the writer and thinker Eloy Fernández Porta with whom they have performed at literature and contemporary art festivals such as Brama! de Masnou (2022), the Literatura en trà nsit de Barcelona (2022), the Fundación Telefónica de Madrid (2022), the Barcelona Poesia (2023), the Poesia i + (2023), the Flux (2023) or Cicle Palavra Inverfest (2024). https://eloielbonnoi.bandcamp.com/
