Visceral Realists

Repository for the Visceral Realists web presence.

Visceral Realism is an open source computer music movement. Anyone is free to call themselves a Visceral Realist so long as they perform publically following the requirements established in this repository.

Organizing a Visceral Realists performance

Organizing a Visceral Realists performance is just like organizing a performance for any other band or musical act. Simply book your gig as normal and use the name "Visceral Realists". During the performance observe the Specification for Visceral Realism.

Specification for Visceral Realism

The key words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Visceral Realism MUST be performed by more than one person. Solo performances are not considered Visceral Realism.

Visceral Realists MUST use only open source software during performances. Commercial software MUST NOT be used.

Visceral Realists SHOULD synchronize their computers during performances.

Visceral Realists MAY use MIDI controllers. Usage SHOULD attempt to be unconventional, for example traditional "soloing" on a MIDI keyboard SHOULD be discouraged.

Visceral Realists MUST NOT use audio hardware devices. Visceral Realists MAY use everyday objects as sound-producing "accessories" during performances provided they are live-recorded or processed via computer. For example, an office stapler is acceptable, a guitar effects pedal or drum machine is not.

Visceral Realists MUST show their work, either by using a projector or printed documentation.

Visceral Realists SHOULD submit pull requests to this repository to document performances and make their code available freely.

Visceral Realism MUST NOT be merchandised. Visceral Realists can produce and sell merch under other names but no one may produce merchandise under the branding "Visceral Realists".

Visceral Realists as a brand MUST NOT be used as a name or handle on social media platforms. For example @visceralrealists is not permitted to be used by anyone. Hashtags MAY be used instead.

Visceral Realists MUST observe the Code of Conduct from this repository whenever performing or acting publically as a Visceral Realist.

Contributing

The website is built with Jekyll, a blogging framework written in Ruby, and deployed with GitHub pages.

Dependencies

• Git
• Ruby
• Jekyll
• Bundler

Install Git if necessary folloiwng the instructions here: Installing Git.

Bundler and Jekyll are Ruby gems that can be installed on most systems. For Ruby installation, follow the instructions for your operating system at the URL below.

https://jekyllrb.com/docs/installation/

With Ruby installed to your system, install Jekyll and Bundler:

gem install jekyll bundler

Once you have Git, Ruby, Bundler, and Jekyll installed you're ready to run the code in this repository.

Installation

Set up the project with the following:

git clone git@github.com:visceral-realists/visceral-realists.github.io.git
cd visceral-realists.github.io
bundle install

To start the Jekyll server, run:

bundle exec jekyll serve

View the running site at http://localhost:4000/.

Deployment

The site is deployed via a GitHub Action that follows the merge of a pull request into the main branch of this repo at origin. There is no need to deploy from the command line.

TODO:

• Explain in this README how to submit a pull request to add a blog post about a performance

• Explain in this README how to submit a pull request for any other feature

Credit:

The name "Visceral Realists" describes a poetry movement in the 1998 novel The Savage Detectives by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño.