algorave helsinki workshop and showcase

I’m one of the organizers of the Algorave Helsinki workshop / collective. I started the workshop back in 2019 with Viktor Toikkanen. Basically the idea of the workshop was to have a relaxed, free and open workshop on a monthly basis (at the start it was actually a weekly one at the Helsinki main library Oodi), where the participants just learn different music live-coding languages together.

The “rave” part of the name is just a reference to the international live-coding community. Our members have not only dealt with beat/rave music, instead we have had members with various different backgrounds. Also I didn’t want to be an unpaid teacher, so we didn’t have that many organized learning sessions, more just freeform knowledge sharing ones.

The workshop is still ongoing and I nowadays organize it with musician, programmer and artist pulu alias Miranda. The current version of the workshop is to meet semi-irregularly at the WHS Teatteri Union‘s Unika Gallery to share knowledge, techniques and tips etc… about live-coding related practices.

But, some new developments! There is a big demoscene festival here in Finland called Alternative Party. It has been about 10 years when it was last held, but it will have a new iteration in a just few days: Alternative Party 2024 at the Technical Museum of Helsinki. Algorave Helsinki is going to participate as well:)

On Friday 11.10.2024 We will have a SuperCollider & TidalCycles workshop organized by me and Miranda from 15 until 18. Anyone interested in these languages can just join in by paying the museum entrance fee or using a Museum Card. No previous coding knowledge is needed.

Later on in the evening we will have a two hour showcase slot for livecoded music by:

Viktor Toikkanen,
sofi (Sofia Zaiceva),
Forces (aka me) and
pulu.

This one requires an AltParty festival ticket.

I have been interested in the demoscene for a long time, so it was great to have this collaboration. If you haven’t bumped into it before: demoscene is a computer subculture that already started in the 80s. Basically it boils down to coding executable files that form AV visuals, ie. demos. The different demoparties (and the big computer festival Assembly) host competitions (or compos), where people present them and compete with them.

The demoscene ethos is pretty similar to making music with live-coding languages, so I was very glad that they accepted this collaboration, when I approached them:)

See u there!