Visual Programming with TouchDesigner

In this workshop you’ll discover how to create real-time audiovisual artworks with TouchDesigner. You’ll get to know the node-based environment, explore the core operator families, and experiment with building audio-reactive visuals and custom interfaces.

Key data

ECTS points: 2 ECTS
Next start: 12 January 2026
Duration: 1 Week
School days: 5
Teaching language: German / English
Place: Basel
Fee: CHF 900.– (view fees)
Studying type: Fulltime

Application

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This course focuses on three central areas: creating audio-reactive visuals, controlling interfaces with input devices, and building custom user interfaces inside TouchDesigner. You will apply iterative methods and hands-on experimentation to develop your own audiovisual project with a custom interface.

The course introduces techniques for analyzing audio signals and transforming them into data to drive animation, color, and form. Principles of rendering and instancing are explored and applied to generate and manipulate point cloud systems.

Along the way, you practice working independently with open-source documentation and examples, and discover how to connect technical processes with aesthetic choices. By the end of the course, you gain a solid understanding of generative environments and know how to follow your own interests and find the right resources to continue working with TouchDesigner.

Lecturer

Paulina Zybinska is a creative technologist working at the intersection of technology, perception, and embodied experience. Her work revolves around immersive media, live visuals, and interactive art, with a focus on the ethical and psychological questions raised by synthetic media. In her research, she looks at how Deepfakes could be used in therapeutic contexts and how machine learning shapes the way we form and recall memories. As krata, she performs as a VJ and live coder with the collective unsorted.

General Information Workshops Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)

The Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) offers workshops for students, educators and graphic designers.

The workshops afford insights into topical themes of visual communication in a study programme reflecting the rich tradition of the Basel School of Design. Practical exercises with a high level of professionalism form the core of the workshops focus. Reflection as well as contextual knowledge will be conveyed by way of input sessions, allowing participants’ work to be judged within a contemporary, future-oriented context relevant to professional practice. The trinational Rhine River Valley is a unique cultural environment with easy access to France and Germany and to sites such as the Vitra Design Museum (G), the Isenheimer Alter (F), or Ronchamps (F). In Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, Tinguely Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Schaulager, and Museum of Contemporary Art are world-renowned. Besides its museums, Basel offers a rich mixture of cultural events.

Target group

This workshop is designed for artists, designers, and creative practitioners who are curious about real-time audiovisual art and want to integrate sound, and interactivity into their practice. No prior experience with TouchDesigner or programming is required. An interest in music and experimentation with digital tools is recommended.

Benefits and Goals

At the end of the workshop you will gain:

a practical understanding of the TouchDesigner environment and its real-time, node
based workflow.
the ability to analyze audio signals and translate them into parameters for visual control.
knowledge of the 3D rendering process skills in generating and manipulating point clouds using instancing techniques.
the capacity to design and present an individual audiovisual project from concept to prototype.

Course Organisation / Course Structure

Day 1: Introduction to TouchDesigner
Day 2: Audio Reactivity
Day 3: 3D and Instancing
Day 4: Building Custom UI
Day 5: Exploration

Additional Information

The following items are required for the workshop:

Laptop with TouchDesginer installed
Mouse
HDMI output (bring adapter if needed)
2-3 Audiofiles (.mp3 or .wav)

Fees

Multiple Bookings:
2 ECTS CHF 900.-
4 ECTS CHF 1700.-
6 ECTS CHF 2400.-
8 ECTS CHF 3000.-
10 ECTS CHF 3500.-

20% discount with a valid student ID. This must be sent in with the registration (pdf).

Information and Regulations

Terms of participation (PDF)
Information on continuing education FHNW (fhnw.ch/DE)
Continuing education regulations of the universities FHNW (fhnw.ch/DE)

Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)

Visual communication is a tool of knowledge generation in its own right. Visualizations make things perceptible, imaginable and graspable.