Liveness generativa

L’incertezza come dispositivo spettacolare nel live coding e nelle AI-driven performance

Abstract

This article investigates the intersection of algorithmic mediation and live performance, focusing on how generative systems transform the experience of uncertainty and unpredictability from something to be minimized into a creative resource. The contribution situates itself within the broader debate on the risk society, examining how algorithmic systems reduce present uncertainty through probabilistic calculation. However, as recent scholarship on liveness emphasizes, live artistic practices often revalue unpredictability as a central aesthetic and communicative component. Drawing on theories of artificial communication the study explores how deep learning algorithms generate contingency within live performance contexts. Through qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews and three case studies – two performances integrating generative AI (Spazio Latente, Radio Pentothal) and one live coding performance (L’Embodiment dell’Effimero) – the article examines how artists strategically engage with algorithmic systems to foreground risk and contingency. The interviews with performers, programmers, and creative technologists further reveal how unpredictability is deliberately designed and cultivated as an integral part of the communicative process in live performance. The article contributes to performance and media studies by exploring how liveness generated by leverages uncertainty to shape interactions between performers, computational systems, and audiences.