More Secrets (Project 2)

If you recall from last time I wanted to build a max patch to create an interactive installment based around the idea of feeling vulnerable in a crowd. People who wanted to interact with the exhibit would enter a booth where they would tell a secret to a microphone. Their secret would then be convolved and bounced around a surround sound set up. As more and more people entered the booth the performance space would become chaotic and it would be impossible to make out anything one person said.

 

The primary issue with this is that it lacked the true anonymity required for the concept to work. There needed to be a larger disconnect between the people exposing themselves and those absorbing the work. What better way to accomplish than the internet!

For project 2 I built a web app. https://gatsby-effect.herokuapp.com/

The app replaces the concept of the booth in my earlier iteration of this project. Users go to a webpage, record a secret, and then are redirected to a page which plays a recording generated with the max patch I built earlier to recreate the experience.  Here is the repo for the patch from before.

https://github.com/dtpowers/Secrets

 

The one issue with the current system is that it requires me to manually create new performances from the data collected via the app. I tried to set up my backend to automatically generate new performances daily, but I had issues interfacing with max in any sort of hosted environment. If I had more time / a personal server space I would automate that process so the system is completely self sustaining.

To use the web app click the microphone once, say something, click it again when finished, and then you will be redirected to a performance of the system. Repo for the app is https://github.com/dtpowers/GatsbyEffect