We Live in Public

Ten years in the making and culled from 5,000 hours of footage, “We Live in Public” takes a look through the eyes of “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of”, the artist, futurist, and visionary, Josh Harris, to reveal the effects of the web on our society. Harris, called the “Warhol of the Web”, founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. He also curated and funded the ground-breaking project “Quiet”, putting over 100 people in an underground bunker in NYC where they lived together on camera for 30 days. Before reality television and the explosion of online social networks, Quiet showed how willing we are to trade our privacy for the elusive and often-unrealized promise of recognition and connection offered by technological advances. Harris’ experiments, including a six-month stint living under 24-hour electronic surveillance, led to his mental collapse and demonstrated the heavy price we pay for living in public. Director Ondi Timoner won the 2009 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for this riveting and cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world takes control of our lives.