A performance of live coded algorithmic decimated deep techno. This piece is an attempt to explore rhythm when using relative orbital periods of the planets in our solar system to generate structure. Length of days and years on planets will be downscaled so rhythmic patterns emerge. The title refers to the first step in the Proton-Proton chain reaction occuring in stars like our Sun. The first step is the fusion of 2 protons into Deuterium (Hydrogen-2). During the fusion one of the protons converts to a neutron releasing a positron and a neutrino. This reaction powers our most important source of energy.
The environment used during the performance is Mercury, a highly abstracted and human-readable language. In Mercury all elements of the language are designed around making code more accessible and less obfuscating for the audience. The editor is restricted to 30 lines of code, keeping all code always visible. The environment is named after the planet Mercury. Mercury is about a quick wit, quick thinking. It lets us move from one thing to the next.
Timo Hoogland is an artist, coder, music technologist and educator based in the Netherlands. He livecodes experimental electronic music and develops generative audiovisual compositions, installations and performances. Timo graduated from the Masters of Music Design at the HKU University of Arts Utrecht, where he developed the livecoding environment Mercury to research and develop algorithmic composition techniques and generative visuals in livecoded performances. He has an active role in organizing livecoding meet-ups and Algoraves together with Creative Coding Utrecht, is part of the Netherlands Coding Live community and performed at various events and festivals such as International Conference of Live Coding, Amsterdam Dance Event, Gogbot, Tec-Art, Droidcon and React. He also works on various audiovisual projects ranging from live stopmotion animated audio-reactive visuals in the LoudMatter project, to generative visuals for Biophonica, a live electronic piece about mass extinction. As an educator he teaches creative system and sound design at the HKU Bachelor of Music Technology.