Attuning: A Social and Technical Study of Artist–Programmer Collaborations

This paper presents findings from a grounded theory study of the social and technical roles of programmers in art-technology collaborations. Combined with a review of the roles of technology with respect to helping artists engage with the computing medium, we show that programmers can play several roles in such collaborations, both supportive of and obstructive to the requirements of artists, beyond merely ‘doing the programming’. Of central importance is the process of ‘attuning’ between the actors and artefacts involved, and this can show us ways of making programming systems more comprehensible to artists.