Over the past 15 years, the live-coding and Algorave communities have become sites of experimentation in both sound performance and sociotechnical practice. This presentation revisits two previous studies to trace how gendered power relations, technological agency and community negotiation intersect in these emergent musical cultures. The first study examines how Algorave performers navigate community boundaries, technology affordances, and gendered expectations; the second probes live-coding performances to show how sound technologies and embodied practices reproduce or resist normative gender dynamics. Together they reveal that technological relations are always messy, and community practices both enable and constrain agency. In revisiting this work now, I consider its continued relevance, explore how the field has dispersed and evolved, and propose new directions that link these sociotechnical lenses with contemporary concerns around AI, embodiment and sound.
Photo: @malucampello
Joanne Armitage is a digital media practitioner, researcher and artist. She is a Lecturer in Digital Media at the University of Leeds and Faculty Associate at Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society. Joanne is co-founder of the international maker-activist collective sus_NET which collaboratively explores issues of justice and equity through creative, technical and community practice. Her work centres on developing methods to unpack, critically engage with and rebuild technology alongside activist groups and within community contexts. As Principal Investigator, she has led the projects Sustainable Making for Feminist Action (2020–22) and Equally Digital, Digitally Equal (2020–21), Protest! (2022–23), Include (2022–23) and Making Spaces (2023–present). Joanne co-convenes the Digital Cultures Research Group at the University of Leeds and leads the undergraduate BA Digital Media programme. She holds the Daphne Oram Award for Digital Innovation and has worked extensively as a creative digital media practitioner.