Adding subtle touches of interactive technology throughout, this installation in the Tenement Museum is part of a tour of a residence that highlights the immigration experiences of three families in post-World War II New York. The tour culminates in an interactive garment factory, where visitors can touch physical artifacts, such as sewing machines and bowls surrounding a rice cooker, to trigger video or audio pieces that give them a first-hand account of the time period.

Client: Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Project website
Role: Lead Developer
Selected technologies: Python, Raspberry Pi, TCP communication with Q-Sys show control system

The second video below is from a piece done by the PBS News Hour about the tour. The embedded video will start partway through, at the point where the interactive portions are highlighted. In order to trigger the sewing machine videos, a visitor sits at a sewing machine and simply touches it. Likewise, touchable rice-cooker bowls trigger audio clips, touchable toys trigger videos where a (now-grown) man talks about going to the garment factory after school, and an analog pay phone triggers audio clips of various people who are the subjects of the tour.