Upcoming performances
- 2022 oct 22 : Algorave during DA Z Digital Arts Festival at Dynamo, Zurich CH
- 2022 oct 15 : Plat4mation Hackathon, Hoofddorp NL
- 2022 oct 12 : Thinkwise Low-Code conference at Orpheus, Apeldoorn NL
Workshops
- 2022 oct 21 : Live Coding Workshop during DA Z Digital Arts Festival at Dynamo, Zurich CH
- 2022 sep 27 : Hacking the Beats of the Future course (4 weeks) at Creative Coding Utrecht, Havenloods, Utrecht NL
Publications
- “Creative coder Timo Hoogland programmeert muziek & beeld” on Night of the Nerds 2021
- Interview for Behind The Screens by Creative Coding Utrecht on Medium 2020
- Paper in Proceedings of International Conference on Live Coding 2019
- Poster for International Conference on Live Coding 2019
About
Mercury is a minimal and human-readable language for the live coding of algorithmic electronic music.
All elements of the language are designed around making code more accessible and less obfuscating for the audience. This motivation stretches down to the coding style itself which uses clear descriptive names for functions and a clear syntax. Furthermore the editor is restricted to 30 lines of code, keeping all code always visible. Mercury provides the performer with an extensive library of algorithms to generate or transform numbersequences that can modulate parameters, such as melody and rhythm, over time. The environment produces sound in conjunction with visuals. Besides looking at the code, the audience is also looking at the visuals that are reactive to the sound or generated by the sound.
It is named after te planet Mercury. Mercury rules the creation and expression of our mental processes. The planet implores us to express ourselves. Mercury is about a quick wit, quick thinking. It lets us move from one thing to the next.
Mercury is programmed in the Cycling’74 Max8 node-based creative coding environment, as an abstracted layer on the Max/MSP audio engine and with the use of Node4Max for parsing, lexing and generative algorithms and Jitter/OpenGL for the visuals and the responsive texteditor.
Mercury uses the Total Serialism NodeJS package available on npmjs.com. This package contains an extensive library of algorithmic composition methods.
Funded by
From November 2019 till November 2020 Mercury the development of Mercury was made possible by funding granted from Creative Industries Fund NL. The funding was used to further develop the software, build a public open-source release, extend the libraries for algorithms, sound design and visuals, develop workshops and classes and work on further collaborations, compositions and performances.
- Mercury has been granted funding from Creative Industries Fund NL
- Mercury has been granted in-kind funding from Creative Coding Utrecht

Live
Past Performances
- 2022 oct 10 : Beyond Quantum Music at CZKD, Belgrade RS
- 2022 sep 25 : Blaues Rauschen, Essen DE
- 2022 aug 12 : Future Space Detektion at DiskoKabel, Berlin DE
- 2022 jul 30 : R.A.T. Effect, Apeldoorn NL
- 2022 jul 21 : Live Coding Sessions #5 at Doka Volkshotel, Amsterdam NL
- 2022 jul 10 : On-the-fly .collect(_) at VOL, Barcelona SP
- 2022 jun 24 : Tweakers Developers Summit at De Fabrique, Utrecht NL
- 2022 jun 16 : JSNation at Kromhouthal, Amsterdam NL
- 2022 jun 15 : Live coding demo at Night of the Nerds, Klokgebouw Eindhoven, NL
- 2022 may 28 : HKU Radiator 2022 at The Basket, Utrecht NL
- 2022 may 12 : Live Coding Sessions #4 at Doka Volkshotel, Amsterdam NL
- 2022 may 06 : Sasj & Timo at Algopolis at Cukrarna Bar, Ljubljana SI
- 2022 apr 01 : Sasj & Timo at Ten Years of Algorave, former Pieter Baan Centrum, Utrecht NL
- 2022 mar 20 : Algorave 10th Birthday at Eulerroom: Livestream
- 2022 mar 04 : Math Expressionism at NAR, Utrecht NL
- 2021 nov 26 : Sasj & Timo at Iterations in Veem, Amsterdam NL
- 2021 nov 11 : Reactive Flows in Splendor, Amsterdam NL
- 2021 oct 30 : Algorave at DA-Z Digital Arts Festival, Zurich CH
- 2021 oct 12 : Live coding demo at Night of the Nerds 2021, Klokgebouw Eindhoven, NL
- 2021 jul 10 : Sasj & T.mo at Algorave by Ohme at Pilar, Brussels BE: Live
- 2021 jul 03 : Perpetual Beta at Grey Space in the Middle, The Hague NL: Live
- 2021 jun 04 : Sasj & T.mo at Tweakers Developers Summit, WWW: Live Stream
- 2021 may 14 : Algopolis by Ljudmila Lab, WWW: Live Stream
- 2021 mar 20 : Sasj & T.mo at TOPLAP Transnodal, Eulerroom: Live
- 2021 feb 10 : Presentation at Notam Max Meetup, Online: Talk
- 2020 dec 21 : Liber Abaci recorded for Oggimusica, Lugano CH: Recording
- 2020 nov 22 : NL_CL Algorave at iii, The Hague NL: Hybrid
2020 oct 30 : Algorave at DA Z Festival, Zurich CH: CANCELLED- 2020 sep 26 : Bring Your Own Beamer, Utrecht NL: Live Installation
- 2020 sep 25 : Allee Rentree at SickHouse/Overkill Enschede NL: Live
2020 sep 11 : Unkown Electronics at Club in the Clouds, Amsterdam NL: CANCELLED- 2020 sep 10 : Rafa & Timo at Ars Electronic, Het Kapitaal Utrecht: Live
- 2020 aug 21 : Vrijhaven #8 at De Nijverheid, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2020 jul 18 : Algorave at Network Music Festival: Live
- 2020 jul 15 : Hello, off-world! by Rafa & Timo at Network Music Festival: Live
- 2020 may 30 : Algorave 3.0 Beta at NerdLab VR, WWW: Live Stream
2020 may 15 : Oggimusica at LAC Art & Culture Museum, Lugano CH: Live – CANCELLED2020 may 09 : DA Z Festival, Zurich CH: Live – CANCELLED- 2020 may 06 : Sasj & Timo at Github Satellite Festival, WWW: Live
- 2020 apr 25 : TheDome by Algo:Ritmi at UXR.Zone, WWW: Live Stream
2020 apr 04 : Plokta at Cinema of the Dam’d, Amsterdam NL: CANCELLED2020 mar 22 : Livecoding Mercury Workshop at Havenloods, Utrecht NL: CANCELLED- 2020 mar 19 : NLCL at Eulerroom Equinox, WWW: Live Stream
- 2020 mar 16 : Algo:Ritmi Livestream Performances, WWW
- 2020 feb 18 : Uncloud Festival at former Pieter Baan Centrum, Utrecht NL: Workshop and Demo
- 2020 feb 14 : Live Coding Sessions #3 at Doka Volkshotel, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2020 feb 06 : ICLC 2020 Algorave, Limerick IE: Live
- 2020 jan 14 : NLCL Meetup at Varia, Rotterdam NL: ICLC Tryout
- 2019 dec 20 : Golf Festival at Patronaat, Haarlem NL: Live
- 2019 dec 13 : Hackathon at Messagebird, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2019 dec 07 : Art Machines at Nijverheid, Utrecht NL: Live Visual Set
- 2019 nov 23 : Overkill Festival, Enschede NL: Live
- 2019 nov 02 : Museumnacht at VondelCS, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2019 okt 18 : Live Coding Sessions at Doka #2 Volkshotel, Amsterdam NL
- 2019 okt 17 : ADE Algorave at Brakke Grond, Amsterdam NL
- 2019 okt 12 : Algorave at Zaal 100, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2019 sep 28 : Bring Your Own Beamer at Nicolaïkerk, Utrecht NL: Demo
- 2019 sep 22 : Algo~Rhythms #4 at WORM, Rotterdam NL: Live
- 2019 sep 14 : Urban Dance & Digital Culture at Neude, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2019 sep 07 : GogBot Festival at Oude Markt, Enschede NL: Live
- 2019 sep 06 : BEK, Bergen NO: Live Demo
- 2019 sep 04 : LoudMatter Live at Østre, Bergen NO: Livecoding Visuals
- 2019 aug 23 : NLCL Meetup w/ Alex McLean at STEIM, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2019 jul 25 : Emute Lab at Rose Hill, Brighton UK: Live
- 2019 jul 22-26 : MIMIC Recidency at Humaties Lab, Sussex University UK
- 2019 jun 29 : Makers Meet & Eat at Raum, Utrecht NL: Talk and Live Coding Jam
- 2019 jun 27 : Work In Progress #25 at Lava, Amsterdam NL: Demo
- 2019 jun 27 : HKU Exposure, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2019 may 21 : Night of the Nerds at Klokgebouw, Eindhoven NL: Demo
- 2019 may 02 : hku café: ZzZzzZZzZzZzzzzz at EKKO, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2019 apr 28 : Algo~Rhythms #3 at WORM, Rotterdam NL: Live
- 2019 apr 12 : React Conference, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2019 apr 04 : Algoparty Droidcon at Bunker, Turin IT: Live
- 2019 mar 08 : Beam This! #3, Haarlem NL: Exhibition Livecoding
- 2019 mar 01 : Drop the Milk at Filmcafé, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2019 feb 09 : Processing Community Day at Fiber, Amsterdam NL: Live Coding Jam
- 2019 feb 07 : Coda Modula Obscura at WORM, Rotterdam NL: Live
- 2019 jan 26 : Processing Community Day at SensorLab, Utrecht NL : Live
- 2019 jan 18 : ICLC 2019 at Medialab Prado, Madrid SP: Paper and Poster publication (ENG)
- 2019 jan 13 : Sounds Like Soup, Amsterdam NL: Live
- 2018 dec 20 : End of the Year Code Jam, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2018 nov 24 : Forever Young at Overkill Festival, Enschede NL: Live
- 2018 nov 03 : Algorave at Ekko, Utrecht NL: Live
- 2018 nov 03 : Live coding meetup at SensorLab, Utrecht NL: Talk and Q&A (ENG)
- 2018 nov 01 : Algemeen Dagblad: article and video-interview (NL)
- 2018 oct 31 : Focus Radioshow at NPO Radio 1: interview (NL)
Past Workshops
- 2022 may 06 : Workshop Live Coding 101 at Ljudmila Art & Science Center, Ljubljana SI
- 2022 mar 21, 28, apr 04: Workshop Live Coding at ExperienceLab CODA, Apeldoorn NL
- 2021 dec 24, jan 20 : Workshop Hacking Beats at X11, NL: Online
- 2021 dec 04 : Workshop Live Coding at The Overkill Festival, Enschede NL
- 2021 jul 10 : Crash Course Live Coding at Pilar, Brussels BE
- 2020 nov 21, 22 : 2-day Live Coding Workshops at iii, The Hague NL
- 2020 sep 16, 23, 30, 7 oct, 14 : Live Coding Beats (Course) at Het Wilde Westen, Utrecht NL
- 2020 sep 12 : Workshop at Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht NL
- 2020 aug 19 – 21 : Live Coding Summer School, Volkshotel NL
- 2020 feb 18 : Workshop and demo at Uncloud Festival, former Pieter Baan Centrum, Utrecht NL
- 2019 nov 23 : Workshop Introduction to Mercury at Overkill Festival, Enschede NL