‘Together With Touch’ is a live performance that takes place in a public space. The underlying theme of Mental Health is explored through the mediums of contemporary dance and live data that drives the music.

_{Picture courtesy: Vineesh Amin}

In the course of the pandemic, people have been forced to adapt to a “new normal”. Globally, already deteriorating mental health conditions were subsequently aggravated. Records show that India currently is among the countries with the highest number of suicides in South-East Asia. A recent survey by Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF), a Bangalore-based organisation, found that suicide ideation, depression and relapses are at an all time high. Many are struggling with emotional and psychological problems enhanced through isolation and the lack of physical contact. The term “contact”, deriving from the latin con- and -tangere, “together with touch”, has gained significant urgency in current circumstances. While physical contact is being radically restricted, visual artist Lena Heubusch invites performer and mental health practitioner Avril Unger, sound engineer Nikhil Nagaraj and creative coder Gaurav Singh to converse at the intersection of their practices. Heubusch poses questions such as: How is contact perceived when organisms touch through the means of modern technology? How can we experience a sense of being body in the digital realm?

_{Snippet from the live stream}

Avril Stormy Unger physically responded to sound that is generated by live Twitter data; fed by the popular hashtags concerning mental health. The performance took place in Vega City Mall, Bangalore and live streamed on publicdomain.garden.

Date: 18th December 2021
Venue: Vega City Mall, Bannergatta Road Bangalore
Live streamed: publicdomain.garden | youtube.com

‘Together with Touch’ supported by Goethe Institut Bangalore as part of the Artistic Exchange, 2021.

Lena Heubusch
Role: Lead artist & Instigator

Lena Heubusch addresses the exploration of collective dynamics that investigate quantum interconnections between the material, the intuitive and the sensitive. Her work explores the hybridization between performance, sculpture, video and sound as a means to question the traditional categories of the image. Heubusch also questions these liminalities within the format of workshops and talks, most recently at The Graduate Center at City University of New York and Spazju Kreattiv Malta.

Selected exhibitions include:
Bétonsalon - Centre d'art et de recherche (Paris), Friche La Belle de Mai (Marseille), The Graduate Center CUNY (NYC), Spazju Kreattiv (Malta), Five Years (London), Martch Gallery (Istanbul), Sluice Biennal (London), Wandsworth Arts Fringe (London), The Window Galleries (London), Doomed Gallery (London), CAC (Málaga).
Gaurav Singh/Mathscapes
Role: Creative Coding

Gaurav Singh is a researcher and educator who thinks and lives algorithms. He spends most of his time studying algorithms through the lens of maths and engages with recreational mathematics otherwise. Gaurav is interested in showing how closely mathematics and technology are woven into our world and affect us. His work can be best described as a collection of messy and unfinished factions of ideas, experiments, and ethos that evokes the relevance of Maths. Since 2008, he has been running Mathscapes, a lab to support him and collaborate with others who share the vision of pushing mathematics to study the world around us. He co-founded Mimo56 in 2015, a design lab that works across disciplines to help people build digital interfaces. He teaches and runs the Experimental Maths lab at Srishti Manipal Institute to support anyone interested in Maths. Gaurav has also volunteered his time and expertise as Design Copilot at Topcoder Inc. for the last few years
Nikhil Nagaraj
Role: Sound Design

Nikhil Nagaraj (°1990, Bangalore) is a sound designer, engineer and musician. His interest explores the amalgamation between electronic and acoustic music, combining traditional Indian music styles with contemporary classical and electronic concepts in his compositions and transformations with spatial sound to create immersive experiences through the use of sensors and 3D soundscapes.
Avril Stormy Unger
Role: Performer

Avril Stormy Unger (She / Her) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work across mediums is informed by the nuances of performance. Her practice spans across durational performance, movement art, interventions and installations.
She has performed internationally at various festivals like Unsound festival, Krakow and Mira Festival, Barcelona and venues such as Dada, Beijing and The Cakeshop, Seoul. Her most recent works, UNTANGLE and MIRAGE were exhibited at Oyoun Cultural Centre, Berlin in April 2021. Since 2020, Avril is also a practicing and certified mental health professional with a focus on queer affirmative counselling.