When we talk about coding, so often we imagine open-office tech startups making new apps with vowelless names. But coding also has a deep history in the creation of art and music. Bits of code can create endless algorithms or sonic loops that lead to dizzying visuals or glitched-out soundscapes.

It’s this sort of coding and algorithmic exploration that is at the heart of Algorithmic Art Assembly, a new two-day conference and music festival based in San Francisco and set for Friday-Saturday, March 22-23. The event is launching at Gray Area, the Mission’s go-to space for the intersection of art and technology.

The event features several daytime presentations, from noon to 4:30 p.m. each day, by artists in “an informal and relaxed setting” as well as two workshops, one on Friday and one on Saturday (both require reservations), according to organizers.

Friday’s is a “Beginner’s Live Coding Workshop for Women and Non-Binary People” and Saturday’s is an “Introduction to ‘TidalCycles,’” an open-source program for music composition and improvisation.

If you just want to be surrounded by sounds and visuals, you can skip straight to the evening parties that start at 9 p.m. A series of performers plan to play throughout the night while also giving you a look at their code, in real time, projected on a screen behind them.