sign my guestbook!!
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about



what was my role?
i was responsible for the physical install side of things, alongside stitching together assets from the Windows XP “Luna”  theme into the webpage which the computer ran. background music played by the setup as well as all of the “props” were also curated by me. 


what is it about?
“sign my guestbook!!” is a collaborative website themed to look like a geocities user page while giving anyone who approaches the computer setup a way to “sign” the website, either by typing text alone or with HTML. the project was up for one week in Chatham University’s JKM Library and saw significant tags as more people approached the setup. the idea for this project was largely inspired by the MelonLand Everyone page, except limited to a specific physical location.


the computer setup itself makes use of the unofficial Windows eXPerience mod of Windows 10, a thin client computer and LCD monitor rescued from e-waste, and an always-updating website hosted by Google Firebase. while we thankfully didn’t run into any issues of people being mean on the website, it was set up in a way where any specific tag could be deleted in the backend with ease.
the guestbook page without any of the faux-XP elements were also displayed on a projected image above the setup, which was rendered by TouchDesigner using the same computer.


while it did not end up being used in the project due to deadlines that had to be met, an unexpected portion of my role was attempting to repair the CRT monitor we originally were going to use for the project. what me nor my colleague realized was just how badly destroyed the monitor was inside, fully due to an abundance of Chemi-Con capacitors that had leaked all over the internal power supply. this in turn ate away at many of the PCB traces which needed repairs, and while things were improving, the monitor’s Horizontal Output Transformer had suddenly blown, rendering the monitor inoperable until that part was replaced (and we simply did not have the time to do so).


images - on location


a photo of the general setup of items as arranged in the library space. i have altered the QR code shown on the wall via projector, as it is no longer valid.
a close-up photo of the faux Windows XP computer setup. at that point, dozens of people had approached the setup to add colored text, animated GIFs, and so on.
the same setup from far away. as said above, it was located in a corner of Chatham University’s JKM Library.


images - the website itself


a zoomed-out screenshot showing some of the content added by participants. lots of people opted to add text or random images, though there are a few <iframe> elements (just like the sites this project was inspired by).
a bit of an unexpected surprise was people using the site to communicate with other previous participants in a way; this started to manifest as photos of pets being shared with comments on certain parts of the images others had shared.
another cat uploaded to the guestbook by a participant, where a similar scattering of comments occured.
when the mouse cursor was hovered over an image, text, <iframe> element or anything else added by participants, it would highlight when that specific element was added. during the first run, this GIF was one of the last things added.
another example of timestamped and dated text added by another participant.

©2026 isiah f