Austin TouchDesigner Meetup v14 [ATX Video Artist Special Edition]

💙 Join us for the fourteenth Austin TouchDesigner Meetup at dadaLab on Thursday, October 22nd, from 7:30–9:30 PM! This meetup is all about bringing together the local TouchDesigner community to connect, share, and get inspired.

ATX Video Artist Special Edition! This version will feature a panel of ATX video artists who recently created works for WaterWork 2026, a large-scale projection mapping project on the facade of the historic Seholm Intake Facility on the shore of Lady Bird Lake in Austin. The panel will feature Lauren Schroeder, Cathy Le, Brandon Stargrave, and (artist and panel moderator) Mandy Mandelstein. Learn more about each artist below!

We are continuing our Show & Tell Sandbox—a casual space where anyone can bring their laptop to share projects, get feedback, or collaborate with fellow TouchDesigner enthusiasts. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting started, come hang out, learn something new, and help shape this growing creative community!

Lauren Schroeder is a new media artist based in Austin, Texas. Her work blends diverse mediums with a playful sensibility, drawing from magical realism, musical instruments, and emerging technologies. Using tools like VR headsets and sensors, she creates immersive experiences that spark unexpected sensations, invite reflection, and encourage meaningful connection. Her interactive projects have been exhibited at Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival (WA), Filmgate Interactive (FL), Fusebox Festival (TX), and Art Island ATX.

Cathy Le is a Houston-born, Austin-based new media artist and software engineer whose practice moves between experimental media and systems thinking. Trained in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, she creates interactive installations, video works, and computational artworks exploring data, perception, and human behavior, often drawing parallels between digital structures and organic forms. Her projects have been presented through programs including the Museum of Human Achievement, Austin Studio Tour’s UNESCO Creative Cities showcase, Almost Real Things’ Touch the Art, and Hyde Park Theatre’s Frontera Fest.

Brandon Stargrave is a creative technologist focused on generative, interactive, and immersive audiovisual experiences. He builds deeply interconnected systems that meld hardware, software, and protocols into tangible expressions of art and technology. He often works with pen plotters and 3D printers to bring digital generative art into the analog physical realm. Brandon is the Lab Manager for the Lab for Immersive Media (LIM) and an instructor in the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies at UT Austin, where he works extensively with motion tracking systems and sensors, large-scale video projections and mapping, real-time visual rendering programs like TouchDesigner and Unreal Engine, DAWs and audio programming environments, dynamic LED lighting, and more to create embodied, interactive, immersive experiences. He also designs, develops, and engineers interactive installations with dadaLab and teaches new-media focused classes and workshops with dadaGeek.

Mandy Mandelstein is an Emmy Award-winning experiential designer, filmmaker, and media artist who crafts immersive, story-driven experiences that invite deeper connection with each other and the spaces we inhabit. Merging cinematic media, spatial design, and creative code, she brings environments to life in unexpected ways—creating thoughtful, interactive encounters that prompt viewers to re-evaluate their behavior and ponder on what it really means to be human. Her work evokes curiosity, wonder, and reflection, encouraging audiences to reframe how they see the world ( and their place in it) through a more playful and human lens.