TOPLAP Athens: A Networked Live Coding Community

Paper i proceeding, 2025

TOPLAP Athens, founded in 2021, is the first Greek-speaking live coding community that focuses on artistic and performative aspects of live coding. This paper outlines the community’s formation, goals, and challenges, highlighting its commitment to fostering collaboration and growth in Greek live coding. Despite geographical dispersion, the group maintains regular online meetups and has performed at significant events such as ICLC 2021, 2023, and 2024. There is a primary focus using SuperCollider and OscGroups for networked performances, prototyping networked setups for handling incompatibilities across different operating systems, and forming a heterogeneous rhizomatic network for creative explorations. While rooted in academic research, the community has evolved to emphasize the artistic and performative aspects of live coding, combining scholarly endeavors with practical exploration and creative expression. Organizational hurdles common to decentralized communities are discussed, along with individual approaches within the group. The paper also discusses future vision, including the exploration of interactive AI and polyglot (i.e. multilingual) live coding performance.