Gus Childs

America Live! is an interactive theatre production at Bradley University. The story depended on audience participation and was broadcasted live online.

Killer Apps

My primary role was the development of two mobile applications:

The first was to be used by a participating audience member during the show. It was developed for the iPad with openFrameworks, written in C++. I worked with a classmate on the programming side of things while a third designed the graphics. From this application, a different participant every night administered the live voting sessions (cast via text messaging) that occured throughout the show.

The iPad application then communicated wirelessly via OSC to a dual-window OS X application, also developed with openFrameworks. This application displayed the live voting results and various videos. While one window was the display output for the audience, the other controlled it all behind the scenes.

The Online Home

Documenting our work was an important part of the process. We thought blogging would be a good way of doing so and sharing our work with the outside world.

We needed an appropriate online home first, so I designed and developed a custom WordPress theme in a matter of three days. The theme gives both the theatrical side and technology side a place to display their progress, as well as providing additional information for the public regarding the show.