Vibe Code Jam at Rhizome with 1400 attendees

VIBE CODE JAM

When Hacking Becomes Performance Art

Artists and technologists take the stage with nothing but an AI prompt and 8 minutes to create something live. Code projected large. Audience engaged. Mistakes embraced as part of the art. Part hackathon, part performance art, part game show.

What Started at RIP SPACE Became a Movement

In early 2025, Vibe Code Jam launched at RIP SPACE in downtown Los Angeles as a radical experiment in making code creation visible, performative, and accessible. Artists narrated their creative process live for audiences who had never seen code as performance.

Audience at RIP SPACE Vibe Code Jam

The format resonated immediately. The simplistic raw creative process, improvisation, demystifying how artists work with emerging AI tools. The energy was electric.

Then Rhizome called. In October 2025, we partnered with Rhizome, sponsored by Anthropic and NEW INC, bringing Vibe Code Jam to Brooklyn for the first time. The event - part of Rhizome's "Vibe Shift" series - drew 1,400 attendees to watch artists live-code with Claude AI in real-time competition.

8 Minutes to Build
1,400 Attendees NYC
∞ Possibilities

The Format

Artists receive a random prompt and must build a complete, functional application using AI-assisted coding tools. The format strips away gatekeeping around technical skill and focuses on creative thinking. The AI becomes a collaborator, the stage becomes a public studio, and the audience becomes witness to creation in real-time.

Vibe over complexity. Story over syntax. Performance over perfection.

Unlike traditional hackathons that run for hours or days, Vibe Code Jam captures the spontaneous creative energy of live performance - think jazz improvisation meets software development.

See It In Action

First Vibe Code Jam at RIP SPACE John Threat hosting Vibe Code Jam Contestants deep in coding Live coding performance Artists coding live Competition rounds Collaborative coding Vibe Code Jam contestants Focused coding session Selecting round winner Post-event vibe NYC crowd at Rhizome

Scale & Impact

Vibe Code Jam started at intimate RIP SPACE gatherings of 100 people and scaled to major institutional events with 1,400+ attendees. The format proved that this intersection of performance art, AI, and hacker culture has arrived.

By making code creation accessible and entertaining, Vibe Code Jam opens the door for artists who might never attend a traditional hackathon. It's fully accessible to anyone curious about how creation happens when humans and AI collaborate.

Created by John Threat

Vibe Code Jam is created and hosted by John Threat, an artist-technologist whose work spans hacker culture, experimental art, and democratic intelligence systems. John founded RIP SPACE, an AI-native culture lab in downtown Los Angeles.

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