Influences of the Sympathetic Nervous System is an interactive installation that examines identity and community within networked culture through participatory narrative construction. A large projected face, composed of anonymous video and audio fragments, responds to user input. Participants manipulate facial features and expressions, generating shifting configurations of image and sound.

The work builds on a modified version of the custom interaction framework developed for Emergent Behaviors. In this iteration, the system moves from a singular character toward a composite identity assembled from distributed contributions. Participant input continuously reshapes the face and its accompanying audio, ensuring that each outcome remains provisional and non-repeatable.

By constructing identity from fragmented faces and voices, the installation reflects the fluid and cumulative nature of digital self-representation. Each interaction contributes to a shared visual and narrative field, emphasizing how identity within networked systems emerges through aggregation, remixing, and participation. Meaning is produced through engagement, positioning viewers as active contributors within an evolving collective structure.