Beyond Sonic Pi: Tau5 and the Art of Coding with AI
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For over a decade, Sonic Pi has been used in classrooms around the world to teach programming through music. Students learn sequencing, loops, data structures, and algorithms while coding beats, basslines, and shimmering synths. At the same time, professional musicians have taken Sonic Pi to stages and concert halls, using programming itself as an instrument of musical expression. Now the story continues with Tau5, a new live coding system focused on collaboration. In music, concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance aren’t just safety nets - they are uncompromising demands. When harnessed, they can be transformed into powerful creative possibilities for human expression and connection. Collaboration isn’t limited to humans. Tau5 also experiments with AI as a creative partner, asking not what machines can replace, but how they might improvise with us. This keynote reflects on the lessons these explorations in music and code can teach us about collaboration, creativity, and education in the age of AI. Along the way, we’ll explore concurrency, rhythm, and the subtle but critical difference between working at the same time and working truly in time. Dont just pattern match - rhythm catch!
Transcript
For over a decade, Sonic Pi has been used in classrooms around the world to teach programming through music. Students learn sequencing, loops, data structures, and algorithms while coding beats, basslines, and shimmering synths. At the same time, professional musicians have taken Sonic Pi to stages and concert halls, using programming itself as an instrument of musical expression.
Now the story continues with Tau5, a new live coding system focused on collaboration. In music, concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance aren’t just safety nets - they are uncompromising demands. When harnessed, they can be transformed into powerful creative possibilities for human expression and connection.
Collaboration isn’t limited to humans. Tau5 also experiments with AI as a creative partner, asking not what machines can replace, but how they might improvise with us.
This keynote reflects on the lessons these explorations in music and code can teach us about collaboration, creativity, and education in the age of AI. Along the way, we’ll explore concurrency, rhythm, and the subtle but critical difference between working at the same time and working truly in time.
Dont just pattern match - rhythm catch!
About the speakers
Live Coding Musician and Creator of Sonic Pi