As part of Public Access Memories Residency 2025, I worked on a virtual garden to hold anonymized “personals” left on a Chicago-based Bulletin Board System (BBS) from 1990. Rather than a static archive, this is a garden that the patrons can wander through, simulating the environment of a cruisy park.

A walkthrough of the work can be seen on YouTube.

The AIDS epidemic existed parallel to the Internet boom. A frenzy of moral panic allowed for heightened scrutiny and policing of public zones, which historically held centers for cruising folk. Often trees were knocked down, stalls cleared. Open park plans no longer offered crevices to hold these clandestine acts. As physical cruising locations were shut down and disrupted, the digital world became a location for connection.