Machines interactive

This is the “machines interactive” for the Living with Machines exhibit at Leeds City Museum 2022–23.

See also the “accidents interactive” for the same exhibition.

To run the kiosk using Python

Prerequisites: Note that for this option, you need to have Python 3.7 or above installed, you must have made the correct settings to run python3 using the python command in the PATH (otherwise, you could just switch python for python3 above). If you need installation instructions for how to install and setup Python 3 this way, Lisa Tagliaferri’s instructions are recommended, whether you work on macOS, Ubuntu or Windows 10.

Windows users: If you can, choose the option to set the PATH during installation. But if you need to set the PATH after installation, a helpful resource to help with adding python to the PATH on a Windows machine is “How to add Python to Windows PATH”.

1. Run the build command:

$ bash build.sh

Note: If you do not have a bash command (for instance, you are on a Windows machine), you can also just download the build directory as a .zip file from the build branch on this repository. Instructions on how to download the entire interactive as one runnable file is available in the build branch.

2. Run the following command to get a local web server running on port 80:

$ python -m http.server 80 --directory build

Note: If you run into problem with a busy or blocked port, you can change the port (80) to any random number here.

3. Navigate to http://localhost (or 127.0.0.1) in your browser.

Note: If you changed the port above, you will need to follow “localhost” with :PORT for whichever port number you chose above, such as localhost:8000.

To run the kiosk using NodeJS

You can also opt to run the kiosk using NodeJS if you would like. First, make sure you have NodeJS installed. Then, follow these steps:

1. Run the command:

$ bash build.sh

2. Navigate into the build folder:

$ cd build

3. Run the command:

$ npx http-server --port 80

4. Navigate to localhost (or 127.0.0.1) in your browser.