Interactive Frank

download for Windows (5.35 M executable)

download for Max OS X (5.37M application)

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How it works

Interactive Frank is an narrative generator that uses a method inspired by the n-gram text generation technique used in Regime Change and by the work of radio producer Joe Frank. The user starts by entering a sentence, and then Frank goes to work, scouring the web to find another sentence that ends with the same three words. When it find one, it takes the sentence that comes after it and adds it to the generated text.

Interactive Frank uses a text-generation method similar to the n-gram method. This diagram shows a 3-gram. To create a 3-gram : 1) Find a sentence and note the last 3 words. 2) Add that sentence to your text. 3) Find a sentence somewhere else that ends with the same three words. 4) Find the sentence that comes immediately after that sentence. 5) Add the sentence from step 4 to your text.

In addition to generating the text, Frank will also find and play a Shoutcast stream to accompany the generated narrative. It does this by analyzing the text and picking an adjective, and then finding a mood on Allmusic.com that matches this mood, and finding an audio stream that has recently played an artist that fits that mood. It does this by using the shoutcast() and allmusic() functions of Switchboard.

Frank will also read the generated narrative aloud using a text-to-speech service

Joe Frank - the Inspiration

Described by The Guardian as "by far the most brilliant comic in America...", Joe Frank is also one of the only comics that is more likely to make you cry than laugh.

Joe Frank looking confused.

It is hard to categorize Joe's work, other than to say that it is a radio show (which has aired on WFMU and NPR, among others), sometimes featuring fictitious narrative monologues, sometimes drama, sometimes "real life" phone conversations, and often (my personal favorite and what I will concentrate on here) all of the above. Each show is an audio montage, organized loosely around a theme. This format was the inspiration for Interactive Frank.

Switchboard

Interactive Frank was created as an example of the Switchboard library.

The Switchboard toolkit is a Processing library that aims to be a full-service web and network interface for artists and designers. Interactive Frank is both the inspiration and the primary example for Switchboard. Using seven different services, it is a great example of how I envision Switchboard being used - mixing previously unconnected web services to create new content.