We Live in Public

Calling all voyeurs and exhibitionists! Internet pioneer Josh Harris has spent his life implementing his unique vision of the future, where technology and media dictate human social interaction and define our personal identity. At the turn of the millenium, Harris launched an art experiment called Quiet: We Live in Public. He created an artificial society in an underground bunker in the heart of New York City. More than 100 artists moved in and lived in pods under 24-hour surveillance in what was essentially a human terrarium. They defecated, had sex, shared a transparent communal shower all on camera. On January 1, 2000, after 30 days, the project was busted by FEMA as a millennial cult. Undeterred, Harris struck again, this time as his own subject. Rigging his loft with 32 motion-controlled cameras, he paid his girlfriend $30,000 to allow him to record streaming video of every moment of their lives from the toilet to the bedroom. The project backfired, his relationship imploded, and Harris went broke. Mentally unhinged, he escaped the virtual world he created, fled the city and chose to live off the grid. Sundance award winner Ondi Timoner (DIG! won the Grand Jury Prize in 2004) chronicled Harris for a decade, culling through thousands of hours of Harris's own footage and coupling it with rousing rit of her own. The result is a fascinating, sexy, yet cautionary, tale where we all become Big Brother.