Influences of the Sympathetic Nervous System is an interactive installation that explores identity and community in the digital age through participatory narrative construction. A large projected face composed of anonymous video and audio fragments responds to user input, allowing participants to shift facial features and expressions to generate unique narrative configurations.

The work is built using a modified version of the custom coded interaction framework developed for Emergent Behaviors. This iteration adapts the system toward collective image making, replacing a singular character with a composite identity assembled from fragments contributed by many sources. Participant input continuously reshapes the face and its accompanying audio, producing outcomes that are never fixed or repeatable.

By assembling identity from disjointed faces and voices, the installation reflects the fluid nature of self representation within networked culture. Each interaction contributes to a shared visual and narrative space, emphasizing how digital identity emerges through accumulation, remixing, and participation. Meaning is completed only through engagement, positioning viewers as active contributors rather than passive observers.