Trill Node

Node.js app code & PureData patch for a yayoi kusama inspired touch+sound installation. I coded a C++ wrapper in JS for detecting touch for many, many (236 to be exact) plushy touch points with 8 Bela trill craft conductive touch sensors.

Painstakingly constructed by hand - freehand sewn by machine, polka-dotted by hand, wire and assembled by hand.

Touches are transformed into lo-fi dreamy melodies using PureData.

Made for our home + exhibited as a sound art installation for Future Frontend Conf 2025 in Helsinki. You can watch my conference talk about it on youtube.

Demo

plushy-movie-480p.mov

Project design

Rear view of the project's construction

Touch detection

Installation

npm i
npm run build

RUNNING

Setup pure data patch to run on boot

• cd /etc/xdg/labwc
• sudo nano autostart
• Add line pd -nogui /home/pi/projects/trill-node/'Ambient test.pd' &
• sudo reboot now

Setup pm2

  npm i -g pm2
  pm2 startup
  sudo env PATH=$PATH:/home/pi/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin /home/pi/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup systemd -u pi --hp /home
  pm2 start npm --name "TRILL" -- start
  pm2 save
  pm2 logs

To restart: pm2 restart TRILL To stop: pm2 stop TRILL