We Live in Public

The documentary We Live in Public chronicles the life and exploits of Pseudo.com founder Josh Harris. After creating his popular website, a sort of Internet television network, Harris embarked on numerous artistic endeavors exploring ideas about surveillance, privacy and the interactions between humans and technology. Director Ondi Timoner combines interviews with footage shot by Harris and others over the course of a decade.

The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition.

The film explores the effect that the Internet has had, and may have, on society. Harris created, for his Internet television network Pseudo.com, a bunker in the basement of a textile factory in New York City. 100 people shared space together, for 30 days, living in pods without any privacy. They slept, ate, showered, went to the bathroom and were interrogated in front of anyone who cared to watch them.Official Site: We Live in Public FEMA broke up the experiment on January 1, 2000.

Another personal experiment found Harris under 24-hour live surveillance, to show what will happen when people choose to live publicly. In a process that is similar to the television reality-show Big Brother, Harris had microphones and 32 robotic cameras in his home, that enabled his life, and that of his girlfriend Tanya Corrin, to be filmed.

"'Survivor' is just a managed game show on an island. I'll make Warhol's Factory happen so you can get in and be there. Those shows are managed. What I'm interested in is reality on television."Wired.com: Steaming Video (August 11, 2000)

Regarding the loss of physical and social barriers: "It's already happening because people want to turn the camera on themselves. There is a pent-up desire for personal celebrity."Wired.com: Steaming Video (August 11, 2000)

Regarding a project he envisioned: "When TV first came out, it had an impact like a social atomic bomb, but the mode of intimacy that I'm presenting, which we'll experience via the Net, is going to be bigger."

• Cinematical: Review: We Livein Public (January 22, 2009)

1. indieWIRE: Ondi Timoner, We Live in Public (January 7, 2009)

• Wired.com: Steaming Video (August 11, 2000)
  • Wired.com: He Said, She Said... (February 23, 2001)
• Variety: We Live in Public Sundance Trailer (December 19, 2008)
• Wired.com: We Live in Public Tracks Net... (January 13, 2009)
• ComingSoon.net: We Live in Public
• Variety: Sundance...Lineup (December 3, 2008)