Two-Day Interactive Media Arts Intensive

Intro to TouchDesigner and Projection Mapping with Viridan Sylvae

In-person at Factory Media Centre –– Register Below
Tuesday, June 3rd and Wednesday, June 4th
6–9:30 PM each day
Free!

This two-day intensive workshop with artist Viridian Sylvae is a crash-course in both TouchDesigner and MadMapper that will provide participants with highly valuable skills in interactive new media arts. The course begins with an intro to TouchDesigner, with participants working at home to create media artworks with which to experiment in projection-mapping on the second day. At the end of the workshops, participants will have one fully completed, projection-mapped and interactive media object.

Experience with TouchDesigner, MadMapper, or other projection mapping softwares is not a requirement! Beginners are welcome and encouraged to join.

This workshop is free but spots are limited! Please complete the registration form below to secure your spot.

About the Workshop

The interactive media arts have developed over the past decade into a thriving subcultural artistic ﬁeld experimenting with new media technologies immediately as they become available to artists. As one of the primary real-time multimedia engines powering this movement, TouchDesigner (TD) is a visual programming environment perfect for crafting real-time works that can react to music, external sensors, and just about anything you can imagine integrating or plugging into a computer. Created in 2002 by Canadian developers Derivative (local to Toronto), TD is literally a derivative media engine—it is originally based on Houdini, the program used by Disney and Pixar for digital 3D ﬁlmmaking—yet TD is more focused on generating real-time graphics rather than pre-rendered ﬁlms. TD is one of the most commonly used yet niche and esoteric programs in interactive arts, thus skilled TD artists are relatively few and highly sought after by media production and advertisement companies worldwide. MadMapper is a projection-mapping program that can bring TD projects to life through projecting visuals onto 3D objects accurately—allowing the user to transform their creations into beautiful visual installations, interactive objects, or use them in live performances. These two programs function beautifully in an artist’s toolbox to integrate new media compositions and interactivity into any kind of visual, musical, durational, and performance artworks.

Day one of the workshop introduces the three main operator classes (TOPs, CHOPs, and SOPs), Touch compositing techniques, 2D video effect feedback loops, audio reactivity, and how to work with 3D models. Day 2 introduces MadMapper and PM techniques as participants work together in groups to craft their own rudimentary yet fully projection-mapped interactive media objects by the end of the day.

Workshop Requirements

2-5 visually interesting stills or video ﬁles you would like to experiment with.
Laptop / computer (one Mac Mini will be available to share for those without a laptop) with TouchDesigner and MadMapper installed before the 1st workshop.
- Download and install TouchDesigner 2023 here and MadMapper 5 here.
  - TouchDesigner is available as a free license for works up to 720p resolution. An education license is available for students—if you’re interested in buying TD under this license email me at sylvaev@mcmaster.ca and I will verify with Derivative that you’re in this course.
  - MadMapper requires a license but has a free demo mode that allows you to experiment, but has saving and exporting disabled. Participants are required to download the free demo mode.
Familiarity with the Python programming language is helpful but absolutely not required.

About the Facilitator

Viridian Sylvae (she/her) is a transsexual dyke with a Master of Arts in Media Studies from The New School in New York City. She is currently an international PhD student of CNMCS in the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University, where she conducts vital research on living trans and dying trans in North America through critical media analysis and artistry in research-creation and oppositional tech design. An article exploring the theories and concepts behind her newest multimedia installation work, Pharmakon, my becoming-toxic, is soon to be published in the July 2025 issue of (un)Disturbed: A Journal of Feminist Voices from University of Waterloo.

Accessibility Information

View our How to Visit page here. We are located on the main floor of the building. Our main entrance is accessible through a parking lot, with a small step down into the entryway. Next to the main door, there is a larger overhead door that enters into the building via a ramp. There are four single occupant washrooms accessible via a ramp that are shared with the rest of the building. There are no automatic doors. Please contact us prior to your visit of any physical accessibility concerns or needs that we can assist with.