Co-Presence & Drawing
Strangers from the two cities were matched in real time through a live video feed and collaborated for four minutes on a shared digital canvas using a wacom.
Memory-Driven Prompts
The collaborative drawing sessions are guided by carefully curated prompts centered around shared human memories and everyday emotional experiences. This narrative framing serves to immediately establish a common ground and empathy between the strangers.
Non-Verbal Communication
Participants communicated solely through the drawing process and specific gesture triggers, such as like, dislike, and love, which spawned visual emoji bubbles on the screen. At the conclusion of the drawing session, the system provides a structured off-ramp: participants are given the choice to open mic and speak directly with their collaborative partner, bridging the gap between digital anonymity and physical reality.
System Architecture
The entire installation operated as a custom web application built with HTML and JavaScript. This web-based architecture handled the real-time canvas synchronization, live video feeds, and continuous data transfer between the two cities.
Public Engagement
A secondary display at each location showed a continuous slideshow of completed artworks alongside a QR code, inviting passersby to view the online gallery archive.