Theme : Materiality

Day 1 – Tuning in and ideas 

The final project of the semester is design domain, with materiality as the underlying theme. After attending the project launch and the information session, I noted down a few takeaways. I remember Blise Orr reinforcing the idea of creating in a conscious yet playful manner, and bringing it back to one’s own discipline. I had as a main goal in mind, when coming on exchange, to play with materials and make the most of it, without pressuring myself in any way. That’s something I’m keeping as a baseline for this project. I’ll assign myself some working hours for playful experimentation and designing, without establishing a particular outcome, enjoying the process all the way, which I often neglect as I too often let my anxious thinking win. Blaise also mentioned a book on black materials, which is used in her discipline, interior design, as a piece of litterature and as an inspirational catalogue for design materials. I decided to create a moodboard in pinterest as a bank of inspirational images. Similarly to that black book, I’m thinking I could make a zine or a brochure on how my installation could be used, or what colors / the designs mean, to inform the piece as I think it’ll be mostly interactive. I liked Melody Uyanga Ramsay’s idea of starting tactile, then thinking about the 4 F’s of design : 

Form : Does the surface tell a story?

Function : What tests can we do to prove that it works?

Feeling : If someone had to describe the experience how would they do this in a word?

Footprint : What positive measure of impact can you make and show?

Process : Material exploration

I decided I would start tactile, using my drawing, pastels, acrylic and watercolor paint as tools. I decided I could also make a collage of some used products I have, who knows these might serve as inspiration for the interactive installation.

In the other graduate videos, Anita Sarkezi discussed the arbitrary nature of borders, a topic I often think about, especially as they’ve become digitally obsolete yet still central to affirming national histories built on collective imaginaries.

Last summer, I was planning to modify one of my bags that has a big Union Jack on it, in pastel colours. There’s currently an indie sleaze trend, and I’ve noticed a lot of UK and US flags being incorporated into clothing items. I don’t have a problem with someone wearing a questionable piece of clothing, like a quote that doesn’t work or promoting something random, as I see clothes in a practical way. Though I do think that consciously buying a piece of clothing with a flag on it does enforce state narratives, and I felt uncomfortable wearing my bag, even though I like it aesthetically. I thought this project might be worth revisiting, especially because the process, experimenting with calligraphy and exploring different fonts, was genuinely enjoyable. I decided to pause this project as I wanted to think through how the chosen lettering could carry intentional meaning, taking time to understand how these symbols operate within their cultural and historical contexts.

Moving on, I also enjoyed Stefanie Cheong’s process. She mentioned melting materials, audio equipment, with a heat gun, which made me think more seriously about incorporating recycled elements into my own installations, as that aligns with my values around sustainability. Stefanie was highlighting the idea of imagining a future without fossil fuels, which reminded me of how overwhelmed I feel working on big productions and companies, in my experience working on film sets. I thought about what that could mean for my practice, as I want to make another short film in the spring time, the project will rely on many digital props, as it’s central theme is the blurring the digital and the real. I was also intrigued by her story about studying in Japan, where she worked with fragments of buildings struck by natural disaster, understanding the historical power certain materials hold.

Ideation

I went for a walk yesterday with my roommate and noticed the park lights change. She needs glasses, and told me she can only see blurry circles of colour. I thought about how it feels to look at bright lights, when the shape then prints in your eyesight, and appears even when you close your eyes. Those could be interesting materials to work with, light, and the circle as a main shape. 

I have a few ideas regarding how I’d approach the brief. I love material exploration and as an intermedia student, I don’t have a primary medium, except for film, so this project feels like a good chance to experiment with something new. When I enrolled in intermedia, I remember wanting to try making rave installations, which is something I thought I’d give a go for this project. Our most recent project using machine learning was very code-heavy which isn’t usually where my interests lie, even though I appreciate the craft and challenge. For this project, I think TouchDesigner could be a strong option. Its visual, node-based environment feels far less overwhelming and much more intuitive for how I like to work.

I thought about other materials I enjoy using, or that I pay attention to. I’ve always had an interest in magazines, posters, with colours washed by the sun, especially those decaying fronts of stores, as well as broken walls, chipping paint and holes in fences, things of the sort. I like to see nature take over the industrial, in terms of greenery appearing, or by human interaction. I’ve always been drawn to camp and DIY aesthetics and notice I feel better in environments where you can feel that there’s been a human touch or presence. I think this also ties to my concerns for sustainability, and my interests in the art of repairing, or of using the discarded. It’s something I enjoy doing, I feel it shows care, it’s useful, and is a way of creating outside of capitalism.

Day 2 – Reflecting and playing with analog materials

For now, I’ll be listing my ideas here:

I just watched a madmapping tutorial on Youtube, where an artist incorporated visual effects into her drawing. That’s something I’d like to try to do, maybe with a Mandela effect of sorts. I’d like to incorporate fractals and patterns found in nature, or sacred geometry for the installation, as it’s meant in a dance context, when people seek to liberate themselves from their usual thinking and living schemes and be in community. I believe these shapes and forms ease tension and are also incredibly fun for me to draw and illustrate as well. I probably won’t be using mad-mapping, but I’m sure I can do something similar with TouchDesigner. 

I think the installation could either incorporate a proximity sensor, maybe even something using hand pose to detect certain hand gestures and change the display accordingly, letting the user interact with the surface. This would mean incorporating an arduino with an infrared sensor, though these prove to be inaccurate sometimes, and I might prefer doing something audio-reactive so I can instead spend more time curating the piece than working on programming specifics. 

Pattern exploration : sewing

Concurrently, I explored sewing patterns and early-internet day craft culture. Sewing patterns are structured systems of notation, repetition, and geometry, all qualities that translate well into procedural design. Their logic informed how I approached compositional structure in TouchDesigner, allowing me to treat visual elements as modular and interconnected. Together, these early influences grounded the project in a hybrid materiality that merges nostalgia and digital experimentation. I tried to see what shapes and patterns would look nice visually, and decided to expand on the sensation of looking into the light, playing with colour loss, and addition. I repaired my jeans today as I felt one of the knee holes was too large. I played with the stitching and found it to be therapeutic. It’s not what I initially had in mind aesthetically, but that’s fine. 

Day 3

Visual Inspiration

I felt inspired by some visual imagery such as the XXXO video by MIA. I love the Y2K effects, very gif-like and glamour-esque. I was thinking maybe doing a visual effect that alludes to water, ice, and smoke, like the materiality of water. It could be done with hand poses, one for each of the material conditions of water. The ice could be broken and the smoke could clear once one moves their hand in a fast motion. And the water reflection effect could offer an optical illusion, like drowning from the sides. I don’t know what this could mean metaphorically, and think this is an idea that could be developed another time perhaps. 

Material Inspiration

I also thought about artist @the.vape.noise on instagram, that creates musical instruments using robotics. He uses recycled and discarded materials to do this. I’d like to do something like this in the future, I think It’d be a great living creature to keep in one’s space and I don’t oppose to this automated way of music making. I find this kind of art to be revolutionary, as the noise “band” is fully automated, and the sounds we hear relate to the material qualities of the objects he chose to assemble into “instruments”. I’d like to, in the future, make a reactive small scale robotics installation, with eyes that follow the tracked person, as well as an audio track and a mouth that moves when the person does certain movements, but I won’t have time to develop this for this project.

Pattern exploration : polka dots on trash

I decided to experiment with materials to explore textures and forms that might inform the aesthetics of my work in TouchDesigner. I used some tissues that had marks from everyday use, arranging them and sewing them together so that the stains formed unintended patterns. These tissues were used to dry up a scab I had scratched. I often keep tissues to reuse them once they’re dry, and have a tendency to keep objects till their “final use”, reticent to discard them. I found the process of placing the tissues in a manner that evoques care to be compelling because it transforms ordinary, discarded materials into something delicate and considered, while retaining traces of past events. The work engages with ideas of hidden violence and the persistence of memory, how experiences, even small or mundane ones, can leave visible marks, and how we might choose to preserve or repurpose them. This exploration also reflects on the tension between fragility and durability, and how materials can carry both aesthetic and conceptual weight.

Material exploration : Pastel

I also experimented with pastels, a medium I love for its texture and softness. I hadn’t drawn in a long time, so the sketches are quite simple, but I like the shapes I used to suggest trees and the overall colour palette.

Day 4 – 5 – Learning TouchDesigner from scratch

I followed different tutorials on Youtube, to learn the basics of the software such as the main categories of operators and how they can be used. I did a few exercises and explored SOP’s, TOP’s and CHOP’s properties. Once I felt comfortable enough creating a sketch autonomously, I decided to concentrate on how to make the visuals audio-reactive. At first, I connected the visuals to real-time audio input, but it would just react to the sound of my voice. It didn’t create the feeling I wanted, so I turned to live music instead. I downloaded Serato, since I had brought my DJ controller to Glasgow, and installed an internal audio cable to route the controller’s output into TouchDesigner.

I wanted to create visuals I enjoyed, in line with the aesthetics I had chosen in my moodboard: magnifying the beauty of nature, using color combinations, geometric patterns, drawing on “optimistic” aesthetics from the early 2000s, or Y2k futurism, acidwave, psychedelica, superflatpop, vectorbloom, sewing patterns and especially frutiger metro. As described on Aesthetics Wiki, Frutiger Metro uses glossy vector graphics, crisp outlines, and vibrant solid colours, with almost no hand-drawn elements. This aesthetic feels nostalgic to me and reflects the tone I want the visuals to embody. This particular aesthetic conveys strong nostalgia in me, as it was really present through my childhood, but also represents the mood and tone I want my visuals to have. Reflecting on past works, I wanted to create something more culturally optimistic, as I often tend to lean towards social critique. 

Weekend

Over the weekend I read a graphic novel on postmodernism as I wanted to keep reading on the intersection of art, culture and philosophy. I was particularly interested in ideas around the simulacra and the simulacrum and the effects of space-time compression that I incorporated in my last project, sense and sensibility.  The book mentioned postmodern science, which emerged as a philosophical movement, critiquing the assumptions of modern science and “objective knowledge”. 

I feel like optical art powerfully represents this phenomenon, using perceptual interference and repetition to create dynamic visual responses. I wanted to draw from these ideas to build visuals that echo fractal geometry and calming, repetitive, mandala-like patterns, referencing the constant atomic shifts in nature and its inexplicable beauty.

Day 6 – Experimenting with the MIDI MPK mini

I rented the MIDI MPK mini from the depot, and copied the operators from an exercise I did in a new sketch. I changed their parameters using the board. This made me understand the basics of how to make these machines communicate with each other. I decided to go with my Serato DJ controller as I’m more familiar and wanted sound to be part of the installation. 

Day 7 – 8 – Creating the Audio-reactive visuals

I practiced using different parameters to achieve a fractal effect, some kind of repetitive pattern. I decided to use a particle system on a sphere because I found it was an “organic” shape. I looked at my moodboard and paid attention to the patterns and colours I was seeing and how that made me feel. I then used the audioanalyse parameter to isolate sounds, mostly the highs, lows, mids, rhythm, bass and snare. I split my sketch into 2 parts, an audio base as well as a visual one to reduce lagging and have a clean workspace. I played around, applying the detected sounds to a few visual parameters, in particles (playing with the wind and direction of the circles) as well as in the feedback parameter (modifying the saturation, colours, hue). Playing around with my sketch made me feel like I was creating, or, curating an environment for the particle sphere. I copied the sketch and created different versions, to create new associations and visual behaviours.  It behaved unpredictably, sometimes the volume I put was too strong, so it would just turn to white. I kept DJing, went back to see the sketch and noticed it was doing new things based on the feedback of the particles, morphing into a pattern that seemed to mimic cellular structures.

STILLS FROM WIND (GREEN)

STILLS FROM CELLULAR (PINK)

I noticed the system looked like fireworks, and decided to apply a background color change on the bass to express a feeling of explosion, reinforcing the imagery or symbolism the shape conveys. I also noticed, when I let it do its thing, it would sometimes create new colours and shapes I hadn’t seen it do in the span of a few minutes. I liked how it would react differently to different songs, creating new textures. I decided to go with a selection of IDM sounds, a genre known for its mathematical complexity, algorithmic rhythms and intricate structural design, as this echoes well the material processes and changes the sphere will be subjected to, the visual and sonic dimensions relying on principles of pattern, variation, and controlled complexity. I also thought it would be fitting for the classroom presentation setting, as I want to represent rave culture in an appropriate way, considering the fact I’ll be presenting in the morning.

STILLS FROM SUN (YELLOW)

I also wanted this project to address the social and embodied dimensions of dance and communal gathering. Dance functions as a form of collective synchronization shaped by rhythm, space, and shared experience. This ties directly to the installation’s aim: to create a visual environment that responds to and amplifies the communal energy of movement and sound. I added a few ambient tracks to the playlist to evoke a calm, slightly melancholic tone, with deep reverb to give the atmosphere a sense of depth.

OTHER STILLS FROM SUN (YELLOW)

STILLS FROM FIREWORKS (PURPLE)

Day 9 – Creating the pamphlet

I spent most of the day recording the visuals activated by sonic energy. I wanted to create a pamphlet that expressed the visual influences that aren’t put forth too much by the final aspect of the installation. I felt like the pattern research I did as well as my personal readings really informed the work and I also wanted to share how nostalgia plays into this. I printed images from the moodboard as well as some iterations of the model and collaged them to create a “scrapbook” effect. I liked having a few images you could lift and look under, mirroring how there’s always something to discover and notice in how the particles react to sound, and the different interpretations the work can hold. Below is a drive link, including a video of me turning the pages of the pamphlet, as well as screen recordings, the .toe files and photographs of the different “material explorations” I created in TouchDesigner.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VxpeTCu8MRyH9V022FGhuqvLI9dm5pea?usp=drive_link

Day 10 – Presentation

After the presentation, I decided to try the installation with speakers, to enhance its effect. Continuing this project, I’d like to isolate the sound components more clearly and fine-tune which parameters are impacted. I feel like the ones I linked reflect the way the music can “make one feel” and just a few more variables, such as pitch, bpm, vocal detection, can make the visuals more varied yet cohesive to the sound. I also want to include more cellular-like patterns, as I find them really pleasing to look at. This project gave me the opportunity to finally learn touch designers as well as DJ again after a hiatus. Using this software was actually a really fun learning journey, and exploring the different material properties went smoother than expected. I realized that I really enjoy visual node-based programming, it even started feeling intuitive and I often found myself in a flow state while iterating on the sketches. Not knowing exactly how the visuals would behave and experimenting as I went along was exciting and opened up new creative possibilities for me. I’d like to, in the future, use a video I took while I went on a run, and alter its components with sound. This medium resonates strongly with me: I’m a visual artist, but music deeply shapes the way I create.

Sources

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbupHTeJCeU&list=PLx5SITvoCWI8JDApEX0jBXjqzGUyw1SNu&index=9. Accessed 7 Dec. 2025.

Appignanesi, Richard. Introducing Postmodernism. With Internet Archive, Cambridge : Icon, 2003. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/introducingpostm0000appi_y4a4.

Client Challenge. https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Frutiger_Metro. Accessed 4 Dec. 2025.