During the COVID-19 pandemic, the internet has become an important tool to protect our mental health by allowing us to connect to each other through social media, video calls, and messages/emails. Distant Touch explores a way to make this connection more visceral and immediate. The web page allows users, from anywhere in the world, to communicate with each other in real time through visuals, touch and sound. Users can touch each other through their screens and playfully create music together. Hopefully this helps them feel less lonely during this age of social distancing.
Germán Greiner is a Colombian/American software engineer and digital artist. After studying computer science and working professionally for 10 years he has now shifted his work towards more artistic and creative applications. He is interested in making innovative music experiences that incorporate real time audience interaction, live coding, new instruments and synesthetic audio/visual forms. In his work, German uses internet-based technologies to engage and connect audiences in more meaningful ways than traditional approaches which typically use static one way content. He is currently studying Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.