livecode
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Plateholder is the second performance of Marije Baalman that explores the use of gesture, or in this case rather posture, as a method of writing code.
In Plateholder the performer holds a plate in different postures in order to write code to sequence sounds. Each new variable needs to be defined as a new posture. The challenge in the performance is for the machine learning algorithm (a linear support vector algorithm) to learn an increasing amount of postures and for the performer to come up with new postures that will not confuse the machine and that the performer can remember over the course of the performance.
The title is a word play on placeholder, as the plate, dependent on how it is held, temporarily represents either a keyword or a variable in the postural coding language (PoCoLa), and the performer holds that plate, though may be replaced in the future by a machine as well?
Photos from Live Coding Sessions #9 on January 15th, 2026, by Dave Pelham
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The performance the machine is learning is a theatrical performance highlighting the process of training a machine with realtime gestures: the labour that is absent from most dialogues on machine learning. In an attempt to livecode with gestures, the performer finds herself directed by the machine to repetitively make gestures to generate time series data samples for the machine to learn from.
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or livecode embodied
Livecoding performance with SuperCollider, using the laptop and the act of livecoding as the sole material.
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GeCoLa or GEstural COding LAnguage is a project that looks at how a coding language written by gestures could function.
The programming language is a minimal language to create sequences of sounds and manipulate these. All the keywords in the language and the variable names are expressed by gestures.
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A live performance where I rehearse livecoding with a one-handed keyboard by playing the scripts of other livecoding artists. This piece takes a look at how to practice livecoding and the skills it involves. It questions whether performing other livecoded scripts is still livecoding.
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Wezen is a serie of a music-theatre works where I try to explore the relationship between theatrical gesture and musical instrument, between the body and the sonic world. In Gewording (Becoming) the link between physical and sonic gesture is explored during a live performance, combining movement of the body and live coding.