I felt so freed coming into this assignment. I thought the wekinator was rightfully really cool. More importantly, I think it enables a lot of really cool mini implementations. And honestly, the goofy little chunks of code that don’t do anything except make me or my friends laugh are my favorite. That was my overarching goal going into this assignment. I wanted to make goofy little things to make me or my friends laugh.
My first demo was to be a pinnacle of self deprecating humor. As soon as I smiled, I would get booed by the Wekinator! It’s so stupid, yet so fun! To add insult to injury, I decided to add additional negative noises (a lady chanting “you need to leave”) and a Spongebob riff to respond to face gestures I could conceivably make as a reaction to being booed by a crowd of people.
My second demo was an homage to one of my favorite shows as a kid: Pokemon. Pokemon as a show was immensely comforting. You knew there was going to be some confrontation or lesson in the episode. Team Rocket would be sent blasting off again. Another comfort of the show was Ash’s mannerisms. Whenever he would be in a pickle, he would turn his hat around to show that he’s getting serious. In the same spirit, when I turn my hat around Wekinator can recognize that and start playing dramatic music, just like Ash would receive in the show.
My third demo was honestly just a demonstration of the power of Wekinator. I adjust the frequency of a constant SinOsc based on how close my face is to the screen. A musical instrument where my face is the input. It’s so stupid. It’s so ridiculous. It’s so Wekinator.
I will say, the hardest part of the assignment was getting Wekinator to work for the initial phases of the demos. It was finicky to get the outputs and inputs to sync properly, and I would get some error messages from Wekinator regarding the inputs even when the system would receive inputs.