Coda Lisa: Collaborative Art in the Browser

This paper introduces Code Lisa: a collaborative programming environment in the browser that allows
users to program one cell in a grid of cells. The cells can react to each other, but also to the environment,
represented by sensor values on an EV3 Lego Mindstorms robot. By programming reactions to each other and
to the sensors, a group of Coda Lisa users can together create a living, interactive art work. Users program the
cells using JavaScript, and can experiment locally with their cell in a live editor created for this purpose, which
shows a preview of the cell’s behaviour. Once ready, the cell’s program can be submitted to the server so it can
be rendered in the shared grid of cells, by a second Coda Lisa client application: the viewer. In addition to the
implementation of Coda Lisa, this paper also describes several plans for future development.