Points of Contact: Sound and Interaction

Explore interactivity through sound, sensors, and code.Max/MSP and Pure Data are powerful and accessible visual programming languages that enable musicians, artists, and designers to create interactive installations, custom instruments, synths, effects, and performance tools. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll dive into the creative potential of real-time interaction and interface design, exploring how everyday devices such as game controllers, keyboards, mice, or phone motion sensors can be turned into expressive interfaces. (Participants are encouraged to bring their own devices to experiment with.)

Through peer-to-peer learning and learn-by-doing exercises, you’ll gain practical experience building your own interactive sound system, from concept to prototype. Whether you’re a complete beginner or have some experience, the workshop will adapt to your level and interests. Each participant will work on a self-defined project, supported by group feedback and collaborative experimentation.

You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to:

• Map physical gestures and sensor data to sound parameters
• Design responsive interfaces for performance or installation
• Prototype and test interactive ideas quickly in Pure Data or Max

Important! Please bring:

• your laptop with Max, Pure Data, or PlugData installed (and any controllers or sensors you’d like to use).
• Headphones

Facilitator: Simon Hill, French-British sound artist and engineer based in Berlin. His work explores technology as an extension of the body and a medium for deeper sensorial awareness. With a background in electronic music, coding, and interaction design, he develops generative compositions, installations, and instruments that encourage playful, embodied engagement. Simon also works with the FL Studio Mobile team and co-founded Ovaom, creating intuitive sound objects for sensory interaction.

In this artist talk, interdisciplinary artist Sam Tiussi traces the creation of Creatures, life-like glass sculptures. She will unpack how glass becomes both instrument and image, and how questions of identity and otherness shape the work’s narrative.

The Creatures are composed of suspended glass elements set in motion by microcontrollers and motors, transforming fragile materials into responsive sonic bodies. Tiussi will demonstrate the custom control interface she designed and explain the path from first experiments to building her own hardware.

Sam Tiussi is a Brazilian transdisciplinary artist and piano teacher based in Berlin. With a background in classical piano and visual arts, she focuses on immersive installations, compositions and performances. Her work, based on synesthesia, allows her to visualize sounds as forms. Glass, a material she uses frequently, stems from her childhood experiences with her father. As an artist with autism and ADHD, her unique perception drives her projects, such as Creatures (glass robots) and Piano Glass (an experimental instrument), which combine technology, sound and the body to explore the limits of sensory experience. Sam's practice is to create imaginary ecosystems that challenge societal boundaries and perceptions, such as the concept of otherness, and how to create a more inclusive society.

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