:: Embroidered Confessions ::

An interactive quilt of the secrets of strangers

Embroidered Confessions is an installation that curates, archives, and physically embodies secrets that exist in digital form. Collections of found secrets from the Internet are accessed through embroidered Quick Reference (QR) codes that have been integrated into a quilt. A QR code, in its seemingly random clusters and formations, visually evoke the wrong side of a piece of embroidery. Turn an embroidered pillow inside out and there emerges a different pattern of bumps and clusters of thread than the ordered pattern of artwork on the “right” side.

A QR code is a visual secret manifested in a physical object that evokes tradition and craft, but also must be decoded in an interaction that is technologically dissonant yet visually congruent. Embroidered Confessions is a commentary on the duality of digital information: the perception of its fleeting nature and the reality of its enduring existence.

Embroidered Confessions has been exhibited at the 2011 Connected Communities Symposium in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, the 2011 ACM Creativity & Cognition conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and the 2012 SIGCHI conference in Austin, Texas.

:: DEsign DEtect DEcode ::

Winner of the Best Scene in Town Competition

Locative media game presented at the 2010 Picnic Festival

Video walkthrough for DEsign, DEtect, DEcode

Best Scene in Town was a competition where international teams of students were challenged to design a game based upon the 7scenes mobile storytelling platform.

As the winning group, my team (George Bixby, Parsons; Gabriel van Vemde, Hogeschool of Amsterdam; Olga Paraskevopoulou; University of Amsterdam) was chosen to present and implement our concept at the 2010 Picnic Festival in Amsterdam.

"DEsign, DEtect, DEcode", is a locative media game about puzzle solving tied to physical locations. Users must attempt to identify elements that have been altered or added to the photo and compare them to actual physical spaces to find clues to help them solve a puzzle. Full documentation of our project is available on our team blog.

:: Missed Connections - Craigslist to the MTA ::

Creating connections between digital and physical space

For this project, I re-contextualized Craigslist Missed Connection personals ads into a physical, visual form (MTA Service Change Announcements) and placed them in their original location in order to facilitate connections and real-time interactions between people in the New York City subway transportation system.

My project extended the reach of the ad beyond Craigslist. It also served as an icebreaker for those who had not yet missed their connections, and inspired them to act in the moment.

:: Exquisite Corpse at the Shake Shack ::

Collaborative narrative created by strangers in a public space

The goal of this project, which was a collaboration with fellow student George Bixby, was to design an interaction between strangers in a public space. The space we chose was the line of people queued up at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.

We chose this location both for the density of strangers, as Shake Shack is as famous for its hour-long lines as it is for its hamburgers, as well as the unique interactions that could be possible with a voluntarily captive audience of strangers.

We implemented an exquisite corpse game, in which customers in line contributed to a collective story and drawing. We then added a performance element by creating a book on site to be handed back to the participants by the time they got their food.