Digital Art & Technology Festival
Join us for DATFEST, a day-long celebration of TouchDesigner, media art, and creative technology in NYC, hosted by DATLAB NYC. The event features workshops, presentations, community showcases, and culminates in a party with AV performances and an immersive showcase.
Workshops / Masterclasses by:
Speaker Name
@instagram_handle
Short speaker bio text goes here. This provides a brief introduction to the speaker and their expertise.
Torin Blankensmith
Torin Blankensmith is a creative technologist, real-time graphics artist, and educator specializing in mixed-reality installations, interactive tools, and open-source projects. He's taught advanced creative coding and TouchDesigner at Parsons since 2020 and shares free tutorials on YouTube. Torin co-created the MediaPipe plugin for TouchDesigner (with Dom Scott) and Shader Park (with Peter Whidden). He led the development of restorative immersive environments at Studio Elsewhere to support neuroscience research. His work has been shown at SIGGRAPH Asia and Art Basel's Beyond Basel, and he's an alum of NEW INC, Google Creative Lab 5, and the NYU ITP Fellowship.
Dom Scott
Dom is a tinkerer and artist based out of Toronto that likes making tech easier to access through easier to use tools, and art more accessible through interactivity. He's created the MediaPipe plugin for TouchDesigner with Torin Blankensmith, designed lighting for the world's largest jackalope - Tarna the Art Car, created playing cards, turned lighters into musical instruments, and built all kinds of LED installations. Check out his work at https://domscott.art/
Pao Olea
Pao Olea is a Chilean digital artist focused on constantly exploring movement and form, highlighting the beauty of simplicity and how it can bring peace and harmony. Her creations invite viewers to let go of logic and follow their imagination. She specializes in generative and procedural visuals, which she developed primarily in TouchDesigner. Her work has been showcased internationally, including at Miami Art Week 2022 as part of the Prada Extends event. Her practice weaves together art, technology, and emotion, continuously expanding the limits of visual expression through installations, projections, and immersive experiences.
Simon Alexander-Adams
Simon Alexander-Adams is a multimedia artist and designer specializing in real-time generative art, interactive installations and audiovisual performances. He is perhaps best known for his daily generative art sketching practice of over six years under the name Polyhop. He is inspired by the emergent patterns found in nature and frequently uses complex systems to simulate natural phenomena in the pursuit of organic textures and surprising interactions. He also draws on a love of fractals and geometry, science fiction and glitch art (the aesthetics of failure.) Simon's art has been presented at international festivals, including Coachella, Electric Forest, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and the 2020 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture Shenzhen. As part of the ARTECHOUSE Studio team, he's created work in collaboration with NASA, the Society for Neuroscience, HARPA (Reykjavik, Iceland), and the Nobel Prize Museum (Stockholm, Sweden.)
Lyell Hintz
Lyell Hintz, is a creative/technical artist passionate about building memorable interactions with technology. With a background spanning theater, performance, graphic design, and music, Lyell excels at translating narratives into abstract creations of new media and technology. For the past four years, he has been focused on generative simulations and procedural animation, and more recently, experimenting with AI within creative workflows. His passion for exploring the potential of technology has led him to develop tools using TouchDesigner as his primary development tool. Through his Patreon, Lyell shares many custom tools, tutorials, and feedback with a community of artists and enthusiasts, searching for ways to empower himself and others to develop and learn new ways of creating. dotsimulate.com
Matt Ross
Matt Ross is a Creative Technologist focused on creating fun, unusual, and out-of-the-box interactions. Like the humble octopus, he is constantly reaching out in all directions, never staying on one medium or technology too long. Like the loyal golden retriever he is, he is excited by challenges and collaborating with his peers. And like the steadfast lizard, he enjoys sitting in the sun, taking in the world and all the new experiences waiting to be had. He holds a masters degree from NYU in Interactive Telecommunications and a degree in Computer Science from the University of Miami.
Dan Molnar
Daniel Molnar, also known as Function Store, is a Hungarian-born artist and developer based in Berlin. He combines his background in electrical engineering and software development with a passion for music-inspired visuals to create immersive audiovisual experiences. Educated at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Dan excels in system design for installations and specializes in TouchDesigner. He develops custom tools for visual developers and shares his expertise through YouTube, Patreon, and workshops. His work is recognized for its artistic and technical excellence, making him a sought-after freelance artist and developer.
Presentations and Performances by:
Performer Name
@instagram_handle
Short performer bio text goes here. This provides a brief introduction to the performer and their expertise.
GumGum Studio
GUMGUM is a creative studio based in NYC working with motion, light and form. Across our work, we strive to manifest elasticity in rigid forms. Years of experience in lighting design and video production has honed our fluid aesthetic, as well as our technical capabilities. We work with clients and artists to help realize projects across motion graphics, video production and post-production, realtime on-set fx, bespoke lighting design and programming for realtime installations.
Andre Lira
Andre Lira is a creative technologist, visual artist, and music producer who builds audiovisual installations meant to inspire joy and curiosity about music and light. Under his producer/DJ alias Doctor Jeep, he's spent the past 15 years making and performing electronic music and expanded his artistic practice with development in TouchDesigner since early 2020. For his master's thesis at NYU-ITP, he built Hover Craft, an interface allowing anyone regardless of age or musical ability to create beautiful melodies and explore basic musical concepts such as scales, chords, and arpeggios.
Louise Lessél
Louise Lessél is a new media artist and technical director based in New York. She creates immersive, interactive installations using projection mapping, light, and sensor technology to explore non-human perception and environmental storytelling, often inviting public participation and co-creation in her artworks. With a background in interaction design and computer science, her work spans live performance, public art, and research-based installations. She is one-half of the music visuals artist duo uberørt, teaches projection mapping at NYU, has spoken at SXSW, presented a project with CERN, and exhibited at major Light Art Festivals worldwide, as well as created shows for philharmonics and major concert artists alike, including work for clients such as Rockwell Lab and Disney.
Luke Hildreth
Luke Hildreth is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on interactive media. Creative technologist by day, he works with brands to bring their story to life through interactive experiences. By night he is a VJ and laserist, creating and performing visuals for live acts and artists from the underground to the mainstage. His performance "LaserJuice.003" features visuals and laser mapping.
R Tyler
R Tyler is an algorave artist from San Francisco who co-founded the TouchDesigner SF meetup and helped launch the algorithmic music scene in the Bay Area. They've performed at ICLC Shanghai, SXSW 22-25, Algorithmic Art Assembly, Gray Area Festival, and numerous tech events. Their work blends off-kilter danceable club music with innovative sound design and non-Western tonality, creating immersive experiences where both music and code are performed live.
Sumanth Srinivasan (Reckoner)
Reckoner is a New York-based computer-songwriter project by Sumanth Srinivasan. Drawing from krautrock, trip hop and glitch, his music is a fusion of live sampling, guitar, live coded rhythms and melodic vocals. Reckoner has released a full length album, several EPs and recently toured Asia.
Casta Jiahui Zhu (Kastakila)
Casta Jiahui Zhu is an NYC-based multimedia artist, creative technologist, and producer. She blends the full spectrum of colors in her work to capture and visualize clocked and unclocked time, the tangible and intangible spirit of nature. She performs under the moniker Kastakila. Her past work has been exhibited at festivals such as Venice Biennale, SXSW, BFI London Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, Games for Change, Camden International Film Festival.
Don Hanson
Don Hanson is an audiovisual performer and multimedia artist coding websites as artworks and software as creative tools, including bespoke browser-based live visuals program Donware. His previous work includes founding the virtual 3D art space New Art City, and the California based electronic music label Gridwalk.
Event Schedule
WORKSHOPS [11am-5pm]
Each ticket gives you access to one of our two parallel workshop tracks:
• Room 301: Beginner-friendly workshops that leads to a showcase at the end of the day in Room 301 5-9pm.
• Room 305: Masterclass / workshops for intermediate to advanced users (recommended to have 1 year or more experience with TouchDesigner).
Your pass guarantees a desk, seat, and power outlet in your selected room.
Welcome Reception & Coffee
Location: 305 Lounge
ROOM 301
MORNING
Torin Blankensmith
Intro to TouchDesigner
We'll start by learning the fundamentals of TouchDesigner. You'll get hands-on with the basics—building generative visuals, learning about operators, and creating your first patches. This workshop lays the foundation for a collaborative installation, where your creations will become part of a larger interactive piece using hand tracking and immersive projection across three walls at Chemistry Creative.
ROOM 305
MORNING
Matt Ross
State Machines For Fun and Profit!
We will cover some intermediate use cases for building interactive content in Touchdesigner using state machines. We will explore how we build out stateful systems for multi stage interactions and cover how we can incorporate animation techniques from game engines into Touchdesigner
Lunch Break
We will gather all workshop attendees together for lunch in room 301 with the garage open.
ROOM 301
EARLY AFTERNOON
Pao Olea
Sculpt your visual: A creative intro to TouchDesigner
This beginner-friendly workshop is a fast-paced, hands-on introduction to TouchDesigner with a creative twist. We'll explore the expressive potential of geometric forms—learning how to build, deform, and reimagine 3D shapes using real-time tools. You'll get a playful overview of key concepts like SOP and basic animation, all while focusing on experimentation over perfection. Whether you're an artist, designer, or just curious about generative visuals, this session invites you to create freely, break the rules, and start building your own digital worlds.
ROOM 305
EARLY AFTERNOON
Dan Molnar Lyell Hintz
TouchDesigner Tool Building
This workshop dives into leveraging Python and component-based design to create more powerful, reusable, and maintainable TouchDesigner projects. Starting with the efficiency of Python expressions for task compression, we'll explore the "why" and "how" of building custom tools (TOXs/Components). Participants will learn practical steps for identifying reusable network sections, exposing parameters effectively, and implementing best practices for creating robust tools suitable for personal use, collaboration, or client delivery. Through hands-on examples, including building a simple extension and exploring preset management systems, attendees will gain the skills to move beyond monolithic networks towards modular, future-proof TouchDesigner development.
Short Break (3:00-3:30)
ROOM 301
LATE AFTERNOON
Torin Blankensmith Dom Scott
Interactive Installations with MediaPipe
In the final workshop, you'll learn how to bring motion tracking into your work using the MediaPipe plugin for TouchDesigner. We'll explore hand tracking in depth and show you how to connect it with the visual work you've created in the first two sessions. Together, we'll build a large-scale, interactive installation that will be showcased in Chemistry Creative's 3-wall gallery space—inviting guests to explore and interact with your creations in real time.
ROOM 305
LATE AFTERNOON
Simon Alexander-Adams
Grid-Based Design
Explore the power of grid systems for generative art and visual design with TouchDesigner. We'll be focusing on a custom tool that facilitates snapping elements to a grid within a self contained UI, complete with drag-and-drop creation from templates, and familiar shortcuts for quickly copying or deleting design elements. This technique is great for rendering stylized 3D user interfaces, and mixing procedurally generated components with manual design when you need to get specific about compositional decisions. The workshop provides an overview of tool usage, along with how to extend it with your own custom components. Beyond that we'll look at example installations that have made use of this technique, which in turn informed the methodology and design choices behind the grid layout tool.
Dinner Break & Transition
Location: 301 - Beginner showcase will be running in Room 301
FRIDAY NIGHT / CLOSING PARTY [6pm-LATE]
Location: Room 305 (Note: Times may vary slightly)
Opening Hour
Doors Open
Evening-only guests arrive. Check out the beginner showcase, installations, and grab some DATFEST merch.
DATLABNYC Chem Creative
Welcome talk / Chem Creative Highlight
Featured Talks + Presentations
GumGum Studio
An Approach to Lighting Control
GUMGUM Studio presents their lighting performance engine, BUSKER, built from scratch in TouchDesigner to control entire installations as if they are a single, massive lighting fixture. The talk will cover the content generation, interface, and the technical aspects of organizing many types of DMX fixtures in TouchDesigner.
Andre Lira
Building Physical Installations and Inter-Software Communication with TouchDesigner
An exploration on how TouchDesigner can send and receive data to/from other programs, focusing on the use cases of communicating with Ableton and MadMapper as explained through these interactions in the artist's installation Hover Craft. Plus, some tips and tricks for using TouchDesigner in unconventional ways to create custom tools to help artists' workflows for physical fabrication and design.
Louise Lessél
Previs and projection mapping for architectural and live‑band shows with TouchDesigner + UE5
A deep dive into previs in Touchdesigner and Unreal Engine for interactive band visuals and architectural mapping workflows.
Greg Hermanovic
New Features Coming in TouchDesigner!
Presented by the CEO of Derivative, the company behind TouchDesigner.
Derivative
Talkback / Q&A
Featuring: Greg Hermanovic and Isabelle Rousset from Derivative.
AV PERFORMANCES (10PM - LATE)
Reckoner x Kastakila
As Above So Below
"As Above So Below" will comprise a combination of new and existing pieces highlighting recurring motifs around the degradation of media and cultural artifacts, digital folklore, corporate enshittification, and the role of the internet in creating a monoculture across the urban world.
R Tyler x Don Hanson
Telling my kids this was vibe coding
Livecoding algorithmic techno from San Francisco. Psychomotor system approved.
Luke Hildreth x Andre Lira
LaserJuice.003
Collaborative AV Performance: Visuals, laser mapping, and music.
Installations
Entrance Area
Photo Booth by Crystal Jow
Room 305
LED Light Sculpture by GumGum Studio
Lounge
Interactive Instrument Stand by Andre Lira
Join Us at DATFEST 2025
Patreon members: Workshop leaders offer discounts to their Patreon subscribers. Visit their specific Patreon pages for discount information.
Students: Use code STUDENT20 for a discount (valid student ID required at the door).