Alex McLean is a software artist, live coding musician and researcher of pattern, with interests surrounding computer programming as a cultural activity, particularly Live Coding, where computer languages are used as creative, live interfaces for interacting with the world.

Alex completed his PhD in Goldsmiths, University of London in 2011, with thesis “Artist-Programmers and Programming Languages for the Arts”.

As a musician, he has performed widely with his free, open source live coding software TidalCycles, including at Glastonbury, Sonar, No Bounds, Ars Electronica, and Bluedot festivals.

He is active across the digital arts, co-founding the Algorave and TOPLAP live coding movements, and curating the AlgoMech Festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement. He works as researcher as part of the European Research Council project PENELOPE, applying live coding to the investigation of weaving as a technical mode of existence. This project is based in the Research Institute of the Deutsches Museum, Munich.