Description
Phonetic Faces is an interactive mobile visual installation in public space that allows people to both contribute their image to a shared display and collaborate with others to create a collage of images using their mobile phones. While in front of the installation, visitors call a free 1-890 number which prompts them to choose images to collage together and allows them to take a new picture of themselves to add the archive. The installation allows up to four people to simultaneously call in and chose photographs to add to the evolving collage. The result is a visual composition of visitors over time to the installation. Ideally, the project would be installed in a public space such as a bus stop or another "waiting" point to allow for a constant influx of new images and collages to collect over time.

Background
How can a sense of community amongst visitors be maintained over time? Phonetic Faces is focused on the idea of time-based image capture in public spaces, where the people inhabiting those spaces changes daily. As we become more dependent on mobile devices, our specificity to physical location over physical proximity may begin to deteriorate. Like a sign that's anchored to the street, Phonetic Faces can only exist in a location dependent space where people's action and movements become more important than their immediate environment. Since it's an open system, it's collage feature allows for multiple perspectives to merge into a hybrid portrait of the local community.

System
Phonetic Faces exists on a screen embedded into the wall of an inhabited public space. A small video camera sits above the screen and is activated by visitors through their mobile phones. When you walk up to the screen, you call a free 1-890 number and a voice guides you through two options: 1) Paint with a picture to add to the animating collage 2) Take a new picture of yourself that others can use in the collage by activating the camera. The system uses VoiceXML (a subset of XML) through Voxpilot and speech recognition to decipher voice input in the form of voice or DTMF tones.

Future versions of Phonetic Faces will have a networked component to connect imaging stations situated in public spaces throughout the world. Once a new image is taken it will be sent to the other stations along with information on its origin, time, and location. The project is a hybrid of my projects My_Faces, an autobigraphic image manipulation tool and Musical/Devices , a mobile-phone based, public collaborative music project.