WorkCase study · 08 of 08Live installation

An immersive debate experience.
Powered by live AI and responsive visuals.

An interactive installation for Boomtown’s citizens’ assembly. Live transcription and an AI agent turned audience discussions into themes, headlines and animated displays around the room. Written summaries helped incoming facilitators continue the debate.

Client: BoomtownThe Network · Grand Central
Stages we ran: 01Research
02Product
03UX & UI
04AI engineering
05Ship & run
Stack: Node.js · Deepgram · Claude · Supabase · browser visuals
Year: Aug 2026
Live: Boomtown 2026Live event · August

3D reconstruction of the Boomtown Town Hall room, with fifteen monitors, silver-covered debate tables and the cable installation.

3D reconstruction · demonstration debate

The problem

Making a live debate visible, and preserving it between sessions.

The Network’s citizens’ assembly brought audience discussions into a shared People’s Charter. Facilitators needed screens that reflected the debate as it developed, plus reliable summaries to pass the discussion on to incoming teams.

ConstraintMake a noisy, overlapping debate readable across a room in daylight. Keep the visual wall alive if the connection drops, and leave declarations in the hands of the human facilitators.

The photographed Boomtown Town Hall room with illustrative headline, tally and organic visual overlays on the six monitors around the Oracle’s chair. — Inside the room · original photograph with illustrative screen overlays.

What we built

Live listening, responsive displays and session handovers.

01 · 03

The listening agent

The table microphones feed live transcription. Once a minute, the agent reads the latest words alongside the topics already being tracked, groups related ideas and writes a short headline. Mention counts come from a separate counter, so the model can interpret the discussion without inventing its numbers.

04 AI engineeringLive transcriptionOne agent call a minute

Boomtown Hall control interface: recording controls, input selection and the live view of what the room is saying.

02 · 03

The visual debate

Large, rippling headlines show what is being argued; topic tallies and hot words reveal what keeps coming back. Behind them, Iona’s organic visuals connect the screens as one installation. Votes and announcements can take over the wall, while a single control hides the words and lets the visuals keep running.

03 UX & UIHeadlines · topics · talliesA continuous visual wall

A development capture of the Boomtown debate screen, with a headline over the organic Iona visuals. The displayed debate is demonstration content.

03 · 03

The handover and charter

Stopping a shift writes a summary for the incoming team, with the day’s discussion carried forward rather than reset. Facilitators can put a candidate declaration on the wall, edit it and ratify it into the charter. The agent helps the room remember; the people in it decide what becomes official.

02 Product05 Ship & runHuman-ratified declarations

Boomtown Hall’s Summary and Handover interface, where the crew can create the note for the next actor.

Built withNode.jsDeepgramClaudeSupabaseRailwayBrowser visuals

Project outcomes

Delivered for Boomtown, with live visuals and facilitator controls.

Installed at BoomtownA visual listening system in the real citizens’ assembly, with screens around the Oracle and microphones across the debate tables.Delivered

One agent call a minuteThe agent labels themes and writes headlines. A separate counter supplies the tallies; the model does not make up the numbers.Built

Human controlThe crew can announce a vote, hide the words or ratify a declaration. The AI never adds an official charter entry on its own.Built

A memory between shiftsWritten handovers preserve the discussion for the next team, so the day does not depend on one facilitator’s recollection.Delivered