Blue Velvet
by David Theo Goldberg
Information Architecture by Stefka Hristova
Design and Programming by Erik Loyer
2007
This project uses the Flash plug-in, which is no longer supported by Adobe. As an alternative, view the project's video documentation below.
Words slide, fall, rain, dissolve, and transform in this poetic exploration of the contours of American racial politics post-Katrina. Featuring music by Liu Sola. A collaboration with scholar David Theo Goldberg and Stefka Hristova.
Video Traversal
A high quality recording of the project as a user might experience it.
Images
The piece begins with a placid view over which hovers a ticker that repeats the words “New Orleans.” Evocative phrases rain down from the ticker.
The user can dislodge specific key phrases into what proves to be a liquid landscape. As the phrase submerges, we follow it downwards as it breaks apart and dissolves into other words.
As the words dissolve completely, they trigger the appearance of a text—one of the 24 arguments of the piece—and related media.
Accompanying media includes video, audio, photographs and maps that illuminate the status of New Orleans, present and past.
A bookmarkable index allows users to explore the content of the project independently of the main interface.