A Principled Approach To Developing New Languages For Live Coding

This paper introduces Improcess, a novel cross-disciplinarycollaborative project focussed on the design and development of tools to structure the communication between performer and musical process. We describe a 3-tiered architecture centering around the notion of a Common MusicRuntime, a shared platform on top of which inter-operatingclient interfaces may be combined to form new musical instruments. This approach allows hardware devices such asthe monome to act as an extended hardware interface withthe same power to initiate and control musical processesas a bespoke programming language. Finally, we reflect onthe structure of the collaborative project itself, which offers an opportunity to discuss general research strategy forconducting highly sophisticated technical research within aperforming arts environment such as the development of apersonal regime of preparation for performance.