Reaching Out, Circling Back is a web-based, game-like experience about touch and presence in online spaces. In this project, the visitor completes a series of swipe gestures and sees the touches of other people visiting the site at the same time, or those of past visitors. Visitors will never be entirely sure if the presence of others is real or generated by artificial intelligence.

reaching-out-circling-back.com is best viewed on a mobile device.

Kate Hollenbach (she/they) is an artist and programmer based in San Francisco, California. Her work relates body, physical space, and user interface design to reflect on how mobile devices and networks shape social interactions, habits, and language. She has presented, published, and exhibited work in venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SIGGRAPH, INST-INT, Piksel Festival, and Taper. Kate holds an MFA from UCLA Design Media Arts and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT. She is currently the Education Director at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts.