This interactive game presents a word or phrase and asks the viewer to decide whether it is a racehorse, rock band, adult film, or computer-generated text. While “real” content is culled from sources across the web, fake content is generated via a computational algorithm. The piece inquires whether we can tell the difference between what people write and what computers write. If we can’t, in what ways does this change our approach to written texts and how we respond to what we read?
View the source code on GitHub.
Visual Documentation
The starting screen of the Frankentext application. Illustration by Fish McGill.
The “game” takes the form of a multiple choice quiz. Selecting a possible answer triggers a corresponding sound (for example, “racehorse” whinnies).
The correct answer screen.
The incorrect answer screen.
A friend tests an early prototype of the application in my studio.
The piece was exhibited in March 2014 at the Nave Gallery in Somerville, MA. A user is trying the piece out.
Another user is trying the piece out.
A photo of the piece out of context.
Some Other Recent Works
