Bit By Bit: Brendan Dawes Crowdsources Storytelling Via Text for Airbnb

Brendan Dawes`, a developer with diverse skill sets, created an immersive experience at the Sundance Film Festival by printing crowdsourced stories from festival attendees onto physical strings. The project, commissioned by `Civic Entertainment Group`, aimed to empower Airbnb Haus visitors to share their stories easily through text messaging. Dawes' expertise in hardware tinkering, front-end coding, and back-end database management enabled him to orchestrate the various components of the installation, which included a network of 12 printers and Twilio-powered messaging. By assembling disparate parts together, Dawes created an engaging experience that combined art and technology, as he sees projects from a 50,000-foot view and positions them on the intersection of these two fields. The project's success was evident in its ability to engage festival attendees for hours, with stories being pinned up throughout the exhibit.