Urban Togetherness Photobooth: Memory Making as a Participation Medium

In public spaces, people often exist in a state of “civilinattention”, remaining socially disconnected despitephysical proximity. Urban Togetherness Photobooth is aninteractive installation designed to transform such passiveenvironments into playful sites for social interaction.Unlike traditional enclosed photobooths, this openinstallation uses body prompting to encourage users torecreate poses, funny images, or memes together, fosteringembodied cooperation and shared vulnerability. The systemproduces low-cost thermal prints that serve as tangibleartifacts of these momentary connections.We report on deployments across settings ranging fromuniversity fairs to public hackathons. This workcontributes to Human-Computer Interaction by exploring howembodied interaction and situated installations can fostercommunity engagement in urban public spaces. Ourobservations suggest that visible participation generates a“honeypot effect”, drawing in bystanders and encouragingspontaneous interaction between strangers.