Ritual of Touch
Ritual of Touch, 2026 Interactive installation
Yulia Nemova, Tanya Iaksina, Matteo Cenerini
Developed and presented during hosq residency, Yerevan Shown at Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall (Armenian State Philharmonic) and Hayfilm Cluster
To miss someone is to reach toward a shape that isn’t there. A tightly stretched fabric holds the silhouette of whoever stood in this place a moment before. The fabric hears each touch and returns it as sound. On the other side, a camera is quietly recording the next silhouette for whoever comes after. Two strangers meet through a single surface, always one step behind the other — a ritual of contact with a person who is not there.
The installation is built around a free-standing wooden frame with rear projection. Contact microphones attached to the fabric turn every touch into sound; a depth camera on the reverse side records each visitor’s silhouette and hands it to the next. The work exists only through the chain of people passing through it.
Ritual of Touch uses a rear-projected fabric frame, contact microphones, and a depth camera running in TouchDesigner. Each visitor’s silhouette is recorded and shown to the next person; sound from touching the fabric is amplified live. The result is an asynchronous chain of contact between strangers, mediated by a single surface that both remembers and responds.
Ritual of Touch, 2026. Interactive installation. hosq residency, Notations #2 “Rituals”, Yerevan. Scheme by Matteo Cenerini
