Alex McLean (born 1975) is a British musician and researcher. He is notable for his key role in developing
live coding as a musical practice,
including for creating
TidalCycles
TidalCycles (also known as "Tidal") is a live coding environment designed for musical improvisation and composition. In particular, it is a domain-specific language embedded in Haskell, focused on the generation and manipulation of audible or v ...
, a live-coding environment that allows programmer musicians to code simply and quickly,
and for coining the term
Algorave
An algorave (from an algorithm and rave) is an event where people dance to music generated from algorithms, often using live coding techniques. Alex McLean of Slub and Nick Collins coined the word "algorave" in 2011, and the first event unde ...
with
Nick Collins.
He is an active and influential member of the
live coding community; he is a co-founder of TOPLAP and joint leader of the Live Coding Research Network.
Alex is co-founder of the Chordpunch record label
McLean is also known for his work in
software art, winning the
Transmediale award for software art in 2002 for ''forkbomb.pl'', a short Perl script which creates a unique image from an operating system under heavy load, and co-founding the runme.org software art repository with
Olga Goriunova
Olga may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Olga (name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters named Olga or Olha
* Michael Algar (born 1962), English singer also known as "Olga"
Places
Russia
* Olga, Russi ...
,
Amy Alexander and
Alexei Shulgin in 2003, which received an honorary mention in the Prix
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in th ...
netvision category in 2004.
Alex McLean performs as a solo artist under the moniker Yaxu and is also a member of the live coding bands
Slub and
Canute. He has also collaborated with
Kate Sicchio
Kate Sicchio is a choreographer and digital artist, notable for her work bringing together choreography, dance technology, e-textiles, and live coding performance. She is also active as curator and event organiser in the digital arts.
Sicchio' ...
in combining live coding and live choreography.
During 2016, McLean was sound artist in residence at the
Open Data Institute
The Open Data Institute (ODI) is a non-profit private company limited by guarantee, based in the United Kingdom. Founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt in 2012, the ODI’s mission is to connect, equip and inspire people around ...
, as part of the
Sound and Music embedded programme.
Discography
EPs
* ''Peak Cut'' (Computer Club; 30 March 2015)
* ''Broken'' (Chordpunch; 2011)
References
External links
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Alex
British male musicians
Algorave
1975 births
Living people
UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship