Hyacinthe Pairault
Press to Play
Graduate project · 2026TouchDesigner · Ableton LiveI have always been told that it’s never too late to play an instrument. I answered by creating my own: an accessible musical experience designed to be learned through experience, not theory.
Press to Play was one of my two graduation projects at Design Academy Eindhoven. Together, they were nominated for the academy’s cum laude graduation honours. Press to Play will be exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2026.
Tamagachi
Graduate project · 2026TouchDesigner · JavaScriptOur phones already track screen time, but this data remains hidden in cold, impersonal charts that are difficult to interpret over time. This application translates it into a living biome on its owner’s lock screen. Each app is represented by a species whose growth reflects the time spent opening, searching, watching or scrolling. Excessive use of one app creates a visible imbalance within the ecosystem. Like a Tamagotchi with its purpose reversed, this biome is made to remind its owner to care for themselves.
Abyssal
Personal project · 2024TouchDesignerAbyssal was the first prototype for Press to Play, my graduation project. It turns a flexible textile screen into a tactile interface: a camera behind the frame detects pressure points, allowing real-time oceanic particles to respond directly to touch.
Forest
Personal project · 2022Documentary · Video · Sound Design · TouchdesignerThis animation was part of a documentary I made about wildfires, specifically focusing on the phenomenon of megafires. In this project, I explored the causes, impacts, and the growing frequency of these massive wildfires. Having a virtual forest allowed me to show the same forest over a span of more than 100 years, demonstrating the long-term effects and changes caused by wildfires.
Time Cacophony
Personal project · 2023Sound Design · ElectronicThis device translates the passage of time across different phenomena through sound. To achieve this, I extracted raw statistical data for each presented theme and used the open-source Bytebeat project, which generates sounds from short mathematical formulas.
By transforming this data into dynamic sound compositions, the project reinterprets how data is expressed, making it more immersive and intuitive.
Game Design Unreal Engine
Personal project · 2024Unreal Engine · World Design · Sound DesignA compact selection of game design experiments made in Unreal Engine, exploring interactive worldbuilding, atmosphere, procedural systems and sound-driven spaces. These projects use real-time environments as playable sketches: places where mechanics, mood and narration are tested together instead of being separated into fixed categories.
Echoes
Personal project · 2024TouchDesignerUsing TouchDesigner and a fluid simulator, this project explores unique visuals generated by music in real-time. The visuals are continuously influenced by the rhythm, notes, and frequencies of the music being played. Projected on a ceiling on this video, these visuals have also been used during live music performances.
A Computer cool down with the air of the street
Personal project · 2023HardwareThe concept of this strange PC is that during winter, it uses the outside fresh air to passively cool down via a water cooling system, connected through pipes to a radiator with fans placed outside. In summer, the heat is expelled through this disused mailbox slot in which the PC is installed, preventing it from accumulating in my bedroom.
This setup takes advantage of natural temperature differences throughout the year, reducing the need for active cooling and saving energy. It was a real technical challenge, I had to research car cooling systems to ensure the liquid wouldn’t freeze during sub-zero temperatures. The project sparked curiosity among PC makers on Reddit, leading to an engaging discussion that gathered over a million views.
Apis Sanctuaries
Personal project · 2022Product DesignThis project aims to create shelters for solitary bees in urban areas, where natural refuges are scarce due to intensive maintenance and low vegetation coverage. The modular design of these shelters allows for easy attachment to the back of traffic signs, which are ubiquitous in cities. Using ceramic, a material with thermal properties suitable for bees and used since ancient Egypt for beekeeping, these shelters can also be easily reproduced with molds enabling a quick and easy deployment across urban area.
Living Matter
Preparatory art School in Paris · 2019DrawingCreated at the very beginning of my journey in art school more than 5 years ago, this texture project is a journey between photography, drawing, and sculpture. It highlights a personal fascination with details, changes in proportions, and the fluidity between media, which still drives me today.
I am a multidisciplinary designer from Paris, recently graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven. My practice moves between digital systems, physical making, sound, interaction and visual research.
I define my work as Poetic Computation: using technical processes as a material for sensitive, playful and speculative experiences. I like projects where code, objects, images and behaviours are not separated, but tuned together into something people can feel before they fully understand it.
I am currently looking for design opportunities where an artistic eye and a technical mindset can reinforce each other, especially in interaction design, creative technology, spatial experiences and experimental media.
