What was The Digital Life?
In 1999, I was fascinated by how media was evolving. It was clear that everything was starting to break free from its traditional containers—TV, print, radio—all converging into something new. To explore this shift, I wired up a sailboat as a floating experiment, testing the emergence of the digital world—the very world that, nearly 27 years later, is now deeply woven into our lives.
The Digital Life wasn’t just about technology; it was an experiment in how digital tools would transform work, communication, and lifestyle. The project was widely covered in the media at the time, capturing the imagination of people curious about the digital frontier. Many of the experiences I had on that journey foreshadowed the mainstream realities of today. The project not only inspired others but also shaped my thinking for over a decade about the evolving relationship between people and digital media.
Here’s a video about the experience. It was recorded during COVID to look back on the experienced, so it’s not polished—but if you’re curious to see what the leading edge of digital life looked like in the late 1990s, this is a glimpse into that future before it arrived.
