Austin Watson

Student Work!!!! This is the result of a two-class workshop creating a lyric visualizer that is filtered + captured through a CRT TV. Students worked in small groups to craft their own section of the song. All outputs were collected, processed through the tv, and stitched together in post. Incredible work by freshmen design students @uic.design Borrowed the incredible music from @bombayinsta

Announcing SENSE. An immersive exploration of presence, resonance, and discovery. Four flexible screens are embedded in the walls of a diamond-shaped room, inviting the interplay of pixels, light and sound through touch. Every action ripples through the room, creating an ephemeral dialogue between human experience and digital reality: a truly living space. Amazing work by Austin Watson (@austincwatson ), Pedro Neves (@pm.neves ) & Paul Kirby (@prkirby ) 💫 Come see it for yourself at WNDR Chicago 📍

O.P.Lab, 2026 [ Seerveld Gallery ] The Office of Participatory Laboratories (0.P.Lab) is an interactive research facility investigating the visual and kinetic properties of typography and collaboration. Participants engage with distributed control stations to manipulate live typographic systems, contributing to an ongoing collaborative experiment in language, form, and movement.

O.P.Lab Artist Talk Jan 29 | 6-7pm Seerveld Gallery, Trinity Christian College ArCC North Lobby Poster designs: @raeannvz

Been playing around with scripting in After Effects and how it can actually augment the motion design process in interesting ways. I’ve been testing different scripts Ive made with my students, but I’m gonna start sharing some of these tools here too for anyone who wants to give them a go. If you want to try the script or have thoughts, just DM me. Would be happy to share the files with you! #motiondesign #aftereffects #designprocess #creativetools #generativedesign #automation

It was so nice to see how we could achieve new colors by intentionally overprinting layers with the exact same bricks. The outline of the number "4", designed by @austincwatson , is composed mainly by 2x2 double arrow tile bricks, and printed in both purple and green. The mix of these two colors generated this beautiful dark blue, very different from the digital version submitted (where we would use multiply to simulate the color overlap). This is one of the many reasons why we love printing: "For my composition, I wanted to explore the possibility of creating an italic number with LEGO® pieces. The diagonal line presented a challenge due to the rigid nature of the LEGO® grid. By employing a staggered, terraced building method, I was able to generate an italic-like form, with the added characteristic of the spiked outer edge." — Austin Watson’s research explores the use of technology through the experimentation of tools, generative forms, and other publishing platforms. He is interested in studying the tension between analog and digital methods by investigating the relationship between humans and machines. Often partnering with cultural institutions on freelance projects, Austin has experience in motion graphics, publication design, and interactive experience.

UIC CADA / Print ⇄ Motion Delivered in two states → Slide 1,3: offset print → Slide 2: digital version 41.8708° N, 87.6505° W 2023 + 2024

CRT typographic experiments.

TOUCH is live at @wndrmuseum Chicago. An interactive cube that turns pressure into poetry—where text bends, stretches, and reshapes itself in response to your hands. Built with Kinect Azure and p5.js, the installation transforms human presence into a living typographic composition. Each of the four screens offers a different encounter—no two touches leave the same mark. Created in collaboration with @pm.neves . Grateful to the WNDR team for giving this work a home. If you’re in the Chicago area go check out TOUCH and all the other amazing installations there. 📹: @dustinpoisson

Last year, around this time, @austincwatson and I worked on an interactive installation for the @wndrmuseum in Boston. A flexible canvas that reacts to touch, an invitation to explore color through our physical senses. Straightforward setup, Kinect v2 to Processing, capturing the depth of the area that’s being pushed into a color range and mapping it to the surface of the fabric. There are more color schemes available, but I would invite everyone to go to Boston and see it by themselves. Maybe in 2025 there will be more of this around to explore 👀 a big thanks to Austin and the WNDR team for making this happen. Onto the next one! 🤖

Riffing off an unused motion sketch from a holiday project. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.✨

Form / Function (or) Function / Form? [ sketch in p5js w/ matter.js ]