The Memory Observatory

I worked as a design technologist for a design agency, Junior, on a collaboration with Kodak Alaris and Special Guest to create the Memory Observatory at SXSW 2016.

This physical installation provided an experience where people were invited to share upload a photo and describe a past memory and then re-experience their memory in a kaleidoscopic room with carefully chosen smells, colors, and custom sounds.

In this work, I was tasked with building two React applications that could support this experience. One of the apps was a custom timer that could communicate to the installation ushers when it was time to let another visitor into the experience. This was an important component given the sequential nature of the experience; only one memory was shown in the installation at a time. An usher would talk to a visitor for a maximum of five minutes about the visitors' chosen memory and uploaded photo. They needed to be able to communicate when they were done with each visitor to the specialists working behind the scenes, so that they could begin mixing audio and crafting custom smells. The second app was a website where visitors could upload their photos to a server, which was built to support the high foot traffic of visitors at SXSW.