Pressure Project #2 – The Networked Cell-Block System
Posted: May 9, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Oh boy…this one was a doozie, but in a good way. Much of it went over my head in this first real foray into Touchdesigner, another node-based software with some serious flex power, but our fearless wizard Michael Hesmond proved more than equal to the task of instruction, and within the span of two weeks we as a class created a connected series of patches using NDI, pushing the boundaries of what even Michael knew possible. Nothing blew up, but I may have blown a few braincells in the process of creating my very first patch in this impressive, complex software.
Much of the content has been rearranged, some components appear overridden/inactive as a result.
I’ve entitled this “Dragon Boogie,” There were some elements I found online or developed using generative A.I. (Gemini), specifically the dragon, borrowed from my stack of variants created in conjunction with a theatre production of Acute Exposure, for which I had already begun beating my head against the brick wall of Isadora, so I did my best to follow along with the class as Michael demonstrated “components” (versus “actors” in Isadora) and how to use them in Touchdesigner. One of the big takeaways was the concept of signal flow, to make sure I organized components left to right on the screen, and that to troubleshoot one had to work their way backwards from the problem, following the thread back to the misaligned setting/component.
In advance I prepared this video with found content online, along with some A.I.-assisted audio, compositing it all together with After Effects:
Funkadelic goofy goodness right there. What could go wrong?…
…Turns out, when it comes to Touchdesigner, quite a lot. Much of my frustrations lay in my own ignorance as I struggled to connect the right TOPS and CHOPS for desired effects. Thankfully Michael once again proved invaluable in helping me troubleshoot my way to some sort of successful iteration that worked.
This patch composited the dancing music video above with a red dragon spewing radioactive flames. My aim was to see something cool as my composition interplayed over NDI with patches of my fellow students’ respective work. The results were mixed, much of the class time was spent setting up and working through issues that some of our patches displayed once connected on the local network. Certain patches created some interesting instances of emergence with media channels, for my part there was a hint of funkadelic beats and a dragon blowing fire on top of other’s video content. Halprin’s RSVP cell-block system was by nature a modular implementation of different acts occurring simultaneously, interlaced with one another as directed by the performers/artists, this Touchdesigner experiment could easily be considered a digital portrayal of this idea in action as we connected our own patches with our own IP addresses across a network that jumbled up our content into a real-time evolution of media.
All in all this pressure project introduced me to some of the particularities of this amazing tool, and I have become convinced that I must continue learning its secrets for future projects and cycles.