VillageLIVE is an augmented reality walking tour of New York. Users can walk through the city to selected areas and use their phones as a window to peer into the city’s queer past. VillageLIVE is built around a video archive filmed by Nelson Sullivan. In the 1980s, Nelson became fascinated with video, which was entering consumers’ hands with the advent of handheld camcorders. He is considered the first vlogger; he turned the camera on himself and assiduously documented his life in the queer downtown scene of New York, featuring a cast of queer characters including Rupaul, Keith Haring, Lady Bunny, and more. The VillageLIVE project highlights a selection of these videos that tell stories of gentrification, of public safety for the queer public, and the revolutionary roots of NYC’s queer community. The VillageLIVE team consists of Shir David, Jordan Frand and Anne Goodfriend, recent graduates of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, and the project is funded through a joint effort of the Brown Institute and the NYC Media Lab.
Learn more at villagelive.nyc.
