Abecedarium:NYC is an interactive online exhibition produced for The New York Public Library that reflects on the history, geography, and culture - both above and below ground - of New York City through 26 unusual words. Using original video, animation, photography and sound, the project constructs visual relationships between these select words and specific locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island.

Each word - whether it’s A for audile or Z for zenana – leads to a different short video and a location in the city that you may never have experienced before. In selenography (the study of the moon), amateur astronomers in Staten Island’s Great Kills State Park celebrate the wonders of the night sky. In open city (a metropolis without defense), the ruins of military installations throughout the five boroughs decay with time. Chatty teenagers in a Flushing, Queens cafe drink bubble tea in xenogenesis (the phenomenon of children markedly different from their parents). In diglot (a bilingual person), a Chinese accountant, Albanian baker, Palestinian falafel maker, Argentinian film archivist and Cuban cigarmaker speak candidly about their daily routines. In mofette (an opening in the earth from which carbon monoxide escapes), mysterious gases flow from gaps in the streets of Manhattan.

Abecedarium:NYC Project Website
Abecedarium:NYC Blog

• Co-Directors: Lynne Sachs + Susan Agliata
• PHP Developer + Community Technologist: In Choi
• ActionScript Developer + Technologist: Joseph Tekippe

Abecedarium:NYC is made possible in part with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.