Digital Echoes opens virtual gallery showcases student art, on display until June 27
| May 31, 2026
An online art exhibition called Digital Echoes will be open until June 27, showcasing student projects from the course FINE 247: Expanded Media, taught by Xuan Ye and a teaching assistant. The student-run exhibition allows anyone around the globe to participate and interact with the artwork.
Using the visual programming software TouchDesigner, students created interactive projects using sound, moving images, and real-time data. Their work is displayed on a virtual space reminiscent of computer games, with similar controls like the use of WASD keys to navigate and interact with the environment or featured projects.
Students in Ye’s class mainly learned about a software called TouchDesigner that helps create moving images using human gestures through webcam motion tracking.
The website was built on a platform called New Art City, a toolkit developed by an artist in 2020. Because in-person exhibitions could not be held due to lockdowns, many artists who were also engineers designed these tools to help artists showcase their work online.
When asked what people could expect when entering the website, Ye said that viewers “will land in this digital space, kind of like a lobby where you interact in the 3D space, very similar to how you navigate most video games.”
Inside the digital space, there are multiple links that work like portals that visitors can go through, and each portal leads to a student project.
Originally, the art was going to be showcased in a museum in downtown Kitchener. But, due to logistical challenges, the plan shifted to using a virtual space in New Art City.
What initially seemed like a major issue ultimately worked in the exhibition’s favour. According to Xuan Ye, moving the exhibition online ended up matching the theme the organizers were aiming for. As a result, the team decided to pivot to a fully virtual exhibition. However, the last-minute change made it difficult to organize a livestream for the event. Ye said, “It was super last-minute, like the last day of the semester.”
The event started on April 1 and ends on June 27, and everyone is welcome to join the digital space from any device with Internet access.
