Digital Bridges | Hybrid Program

July 2026 / New Stadium - Toronto, Canada

Most online collaboration still runs through platforms. Your work lives on someone else's server, your connection depends on their uptime, and the terms of your creative relationship are set by a company with different priorities than yours.

Digital Bridges teaches a different approach.

Over four weeks, a cohort of artists, creative technologists, and researchers learn to connect their tools directly to each other's systems — your data traveling between machines, not through a platform — and build a collaborative project using that connection. The program closes with a public showcase at New Stadium in Toronto.

What You'll Learn

The core skill is peer-to-peer networking using OSC (Open Sound Control), a communication protocol built into almost every major creative software platform: TouchDesigner, Max MSP, Ableton Live, Processing, p5.js, Unreal Engine, and beyond. Combined with Tailscale, a tool for creating direct encrypted connections between devices over the internet, OSC becomes a bridge for real-time data exchange between any two systems, anywhere, without routing through a third-party platform.

But beyond the technical setup, Digital Bridges asks you to think about designing a communication protocol as a creative act. What data do you share? What do you withhold? What does latency do to the work? These aren't just engineering questions, they're the same questions that shape any collaborative creative relationship.

By the end of the program you'll be able to link any two OSC-compatible systems in real time, across any distance.

Program Structure

Digital Bridges runs across four weeks in July, with one longer in-person session per week at New Stadium and one shorter online session per week. The online sessions aren't a concession to convenience. Demonstrating that meaningful collaboration happens across distance is part of what the program teaches.

Week 1 - Foundations: How Do We Connect? The first week is about setup, first contact, and community mapping. Participants establish working connections between their systems and begin identifying collaborators within the cohort. The week closes with a Creative Handshake exercise: design a simple interactive "hello" between your tools. Everyone leaves with a working connection and at least one collaborative relationship started.

Week 2 - Dialogue: Making Systems Talk Moving from a working connection to actual creative communication. A Distance Duet challenge pairs participants to build a synchronized audiovisual piece: one controls visuals, one controls audio, systems talk in real time. An online check-in surfaces what creative decisions emerged from the constraints of the technology.

Week 3 - Collaboration: Building Something Together Open-ended collaborative creation time with structured support. Participants define a project with their partner — a synchronized audiovisual piece, a shared interactive installation, a networked performance or data experience — and build it in a facilitated work session. A challenge prompt is available for those who want a more directed starting point.

Week 4 - Showcase and Future Visioning A closing in-person showcase of completed works, works in progress, and documented experiments. No minimum polish requirement. The goal is a specific moment to share and reflect, not a finished product standard. A structured closing discussion addresses building collaborative relationships and care networks that outlast the program.

Who It's For

Creative and technology professionals in organizational contexts looking for applied professional development with genuine technical depth. The program structure supports expense reimbursement, and outcomes — real-time systems fluency, protocol design thinking, cross-disciplinary collaboration practice — are directly transferable to professional work.

Researchers and science communicators working in public engagement, data visualization, or interactive outreach. The OSC and real-time data layer maps naturally onto sensor networks and data pipelines, reoriented toward experiential and public-facing output. Target institutions include science centres, museums, and university programs with public engagement requirements.

Artists and arts workers exploring new tools for collaborative practice, distance performance, or networked installation.

The cohort is deliberately mixed across these disciplines. The different problem-solving approaches participants bring to the same technical challenge is part of the program's value.

Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with at least one creative software platform. Comfort installing software and troubleshooting. No networking or programming experience required. Openness to technical experimentation essential.

What You Leave With

• Working knowledge of Tailscale and OSC

• The ability to connect any OSC-compatible creative or technical software in real time across distance

• At least one completed or documented collaborative project

• Participation in a public showcase event

• An expanded professional network across art, technology, and science disciplines

• Transferable skills: real-time systems thinking, protocol design, cross-disciplinary collaboration practice

Program Details

In-person sessions at New Stadium, 83 Walnut Ave, Toronto (6–9pm): July 1, July 8, July 22

Closing showcase at New Stadium (4:30–9:30pm): July 25

Online check-in sessions (1–2:15pm): July 4, 11, 18 - (6-7:15pm): July 15

Cohort size: 16 participants maximum

Participant requirements: A computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux with WiFi and a power adapter. Bring your digital creative tools, data, ideas, and an open mind.

The $750 tier is subsidized for self employed artists. If cost is a barrier, get in touch: immersive@ukaiprojects.com