The NODE Institute partnered with Echoes of Earth to bring India its first-ever
TouchDesigner Sessions at The Sixth Sense immersive festival in February 2026 in Bengaluru.
Hosted inside a 5 decade old glass factory, this collaboration marked the beginning of a long-term cultural and creative exchange. Curated by The NODE Institute, the program featured beginner and advanced TouchDesigner workshops, engaging panel discussions, and deep dives into experience design, data visualization, immersive media, lighting, AI, and live visual performance.
Three week-long workshops
5 – 11 February 2026
Bileam Tschepe (Elekktronaut) led a beginner-friendly TouchDesigner course for artists, designers, and creative technologists. Participants explored operators, workflows, 2D/3D content, audio-reactive visuals, and interactivity through hands-on exercises. Guided projects and personalized feedback provided a foundation in generative, immersive, and interactive visual creation, empowering students to bring their ideas to life.
Simon Rydén (Supermarket Sallad) led a seven-day workshop on creating immersive dome content with TouchDesigner. Participants explored dome geometry, 2D and 3D workflows, and real-time optimization, developing their own scenes through hands-on exercises. The course provided practical experience, pre-visualization strategies, and guidance to bring immersive audiovisual projects from concept to presentation.
In this intensive workshop, Stefan Kraus (MXZEHN) guided participants in creating immersive audiovisual content for galleries and festivals. Using TouchDesigner, 3D simulations, and project-driven exercises, students explored generative, audio-driven visuals, spatial design, and real-time workflows, gaining practical skills and conceptual insight to adapt, refine, and execute immersive art projects.
Two days of talks, panels and workshops
12 – 13 February 2026
Artist Talks:
Speakers from across the TouchDesigner community shared their work, insights, and experiences, offering a rare glimpse into diverse creative practices. From different corners of the world, they inspired reflection, sparked ideas, and highlighted how collaboration and experimentation thrive when artists connect across fields and perspectives.
All talks have been recorded and can be viewed on our Youtube Channel.
(or just click the links below)
Panel Discussions:
With contributors from both the international and Indian creative computing communities, the panels allowed us to dive deeper into controversial topics—subjects with no easy answers, but ones that benefit from being debated with like-minded people across different fields and perspectives.
All panels have been recorded and can be viewed on our Youtube Channel.
VJing—the real-time, improvised performance of visuals—has shaped much of (new) media art, yet is often dismissed as unserious. This panel explores how its playfulness and experimentation drive innovation, foster community, and create shared experiences, arguing that VJing should be recognized as a craft, cultural practice, and vital art form.
Moderation: Stefan Kraus
Participants: Linda Nicolai, Simon David Rydén
Nature inspires generative and immersive media, from VR landscapes to digital ecosystems. This panel examines whether media art can go beyond digital replicas of threatened environments, exploring sustainable design, perma-computing, and ethical practices that foster awareness and conservation, while avoiding greenwashing and maintaining artistic integrity and meaningful impact.
Moderation : Kunal Singh
Participants: Laxita Pandey, Sanjana Singh, Ricardo Torresi
AI delivers instant results, bypassing the iterative processes that foster creativity. Tools like TouchDesigner train the mind and nurture innovation. This panel explores how demand for immediate outputs threatens experimentation and research, and asks whether digital creativity can embrace curiosity, play, and discovery while preserving artistic freedom and fulfillment.
Moderation: Stefan Kraus
Participants: Dennis Fabian Peter, Ravi Kumar, Avinash Kumar
The TouchDesigner community began as a small, collaborative space built on mutual support. As tutorials, tools, and learning resources become increasingly commercialized, the ecosystem is shifting. This panel explores how open collaboration, mentorship, and knowledge sharing can be preserved to maintain a supportive, non-competitive culture for future generations.
Moderation: Stefan Kraus
Participants: Bileam Tschepe, Simon Rydén, Dr. Ruokun Chen, Vinay Khare, Artem Grigorov
This panel unites India’s immersive media experts to explore how the industry can support emerging creators. We’ll discuss meaningful exposure, innovation-friendly formats, and the limits of commercial structures, highlighting the community’s role in fostering fair, collaborative, and sustainable spaces where creative work thrives and long-term learning is nurtured.
Moderation: Kunal Singh
Participants: Chaitanya Bhatia, Tejas Nair, Vincent Samuel
Workshops:
In this 3-hour workshop, Artem guided experienced TouchDesigner users through visualizing complex biological data. Participants learned to transform molecular structures, anatomical scans, and 3D point clouds into real-time visuals, using tools like VMD, 3D Slicer, and CloudCompare, while exploring workflows, optimization strategies, and hands-on creative techniques.
In this 3-hour workshop, Stephen Bontly guided participants in creating interactive light sculptures with TouchDesigner and DMX POPs. They learned to design responsive environments using LEDs, lasers, mirrors, fog, and projections, exploring technical workflows, spatial effects, and hands-on exercises that combined narrative, emotion, and multi-sensory engagement.
