Okamirufu Vizualizer
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There’s something I keep hearing lately — “Are people who use TouchDesigner really artists?”
🕑 Added 2025-10-06 18:14:53 +0000 UTCI used to wonder that too. TouchDesigner felt too technical, too structured, almost like it belonged to engineers more than artists. Many people still believe that if something is made with code, data, or algorithms, it can’t come from emotion — that it’s more science than art. But I never agreed with that.
Because at some point, I started seeing what happens when logic meets feeling. When light moves like breath, when noise becomes rhythm, when structure turns into emotion. That’s when I knew: this is art.
So I stopped trying to defend it. New media art doesn’t need anyone’s approval — it already moves people. You can see it when someone stands in front of a screen or installation and forgets where they are for a second. That moment of silence, of curiosity, of wonder… that’s art doing what it has always done — making us feel alive.
Art has never been about brushes or marble. It’s about presence — about taking what we sense and turning it into form. Refik Anadol doesn’t “code beauty.” He listens to the world through data. And that’s what we do, too, every time we open TouchDesigner — we translate emotion through light, sound, and motion.
If you’ve ever doubted whether what you’re creating in TouchDesigner is truly art, remember this: this tool isn’t just software. It’s a language — one that helps us express what can’t be said in words. That’s why I built my Beginner’s Course on Skool — to help others discover that same feeling of connection, that moment when the technical side finally becomes poetic.
We’re not technicians. We’re artists of logic and light, learning to shape emotion through motion. And if you’re just starting, take it slow — the path is open whenever you’re ready.
TouchDesigner Beginner's Course Here 👉 https://okamirufu.link/skool
Comments
Oleg Pars
Exactly this!) I work both with TD and Ai a lot, and see the trend of “this person is not an artist because ***” just as another repetition of a history. Like it was with digital tools like Photoshop, and before that photography and before that, like you correctly mentioned, arts and crafts. At some point in history there probably was a time when one caveman told to another that he is not an artist, because started using a piece of charcoal to draw, instead of his hands covered in mud) Art comes from inside, and no one can take this away with their words.
Tosca aka nanotopia
Thankfully, I have never heard anyone say this about TouchDesigner (or Houdini, for that matter). My approach and view of TD really changed when I read the interview with Greg Hermanovic, where he described his vision of TD to modular synthesis. Total paradigm shift for me! Personally, I think anyone saying TD is not an artist's tool or new media artists are not "artists" might be thinking of Ai, which many artists have issues with (Ai) due to how Ai/ML creators have used artist's work without permission. Some artists are working with ML & Ai for their work, or ideation, concepts... maybe some viewpoints are similar to how plp viewed Photoshop when it first hit the scene, or video, or Television, or Personal Computers, or radio. Transposing inexperience to include digital media. Similar to the art vs craft ongoing debates. Thankfully, the Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts and Toronto Arts all recognize New Media as art! :D
