Community

Davies considered the electronic music studio environment to be élitist—an `ivory tower'—and, as a riposte, `began to make instruments [...] that anyone could play and enjoy.'^3.17 As well as playing them in his musical performances, Davies regularly exhibited his instruments in art galleries, where `visitors to his exhibitions are always encouraged to play the instruments for themselves.'^3.18 With a pedagogical slant, and similarly underpinned by an inclusive, participatory, collaborative ethos, Davies's also ran instrument-building workshops for children:

What he attempts to do is not to instruct the children, but to collaborate with them, to say, “This and this are the possibilities; anyone with open ears and open eyes can take up such ideas and develop them in his or her own way.” His approach is effective, he feels, because it is of equal value for both musically trained and untrained children: the musically literate are slightly subverted and opened up to the wider possibilities that exist, and the musically illiterate can find a way into music without having to learn an instrument in the traditional way.^3.19

Among Davies's aims was to [...] promote co-operation instead of competition...^3.20

A similar collaborative, community-spirited ethos is evident in much live coding practice, not least due to the widespread use of open-source software frameworks. Consider the following statement from the Toplap website:

Live coding is inclusive and accessible to all. Many live coding environments can be downloaded and used for free, with documentation and examples to get you started and friendly on-line communities to help when you get problems.^3.21

It is common practice in live coding performances to video-project the computer screen so that audience members can see the code being typed in.^3.22 Although there is some debate as to how effective this is, the intention is to break down performer/audience barriers and facilitate understanding of programming environments. Similarly, Davies was known to project video images of his hands during performances with his self-built instruments.^3.23 In Davies's work, as in live coding, as in Davies's work, one gets the impression of democratic community in which hierarchical relationships are broken down in favour of more inclusive, collaborative alternatives.

Footnotes

... enjoy.'^3.17

Roberts, `Hugh Davies: Instrument Maker', pp.8–9.

... themselves.'^3.18

Roberts, `Hugh Davies: Instrument Maker', p.9.

... way.^3.19

Roberts, `Hugh Davies: Instrument Maker', p.10.

... competition...^3.20

Roberts, `Hugh Davies: Instrument Maker', p.10.

... problems.^3.21

Toplap, `About Live Coding and TOPLAP', Toplap website, 2011, http://toplap.org/ about/ (accessed 28 January 2015).

... in.^3.22

Sorensen and Brown, p.7.

... instruments.^3.23

Davies, `Invented Instruments and Improvisation', p.13.