Dave Griffiths: Fluxus

Fluxus is a new livecoding tool developed by Dave Griffiths, an artist working with software for generative art and live visuals. Fluxus uses the programming language Scheme (a Lisp dialect) to script a rendering engine with built-in 3D graphics and physics simulation. Fluxus runs under MacOS X only.

The scripts are executed and evaluated in realtime without compilation, and can therefore be programmed on-the-fly. This process is described on the TOPLAP wiki: Live Coding of Graphics. Fluxus also allows audio input and OSC data to be used as parameters.

This style of always-executing programming is called livecoding, and is described in the draft manifesto of the TOPLAP group. Livecoders propose a hardline approach to the understanding of software-based art: The code and the process of writing it should be visible to the audience, and not hidden inside a “black box”. This attitude falls in line with a group of artists generally described as software artists. Software art is concerned with the politics of the software in itself, whereas generative art is more commonly concerned with its output. Theorists like Florian Cramer and Inke Arns have written extensively about software art.