A Netflix documentary led to resurrecting a 9/11 memorial
4 hours ago
- The author and Jess watched the documentary 'Secret Mall Apartment' about Tape Art artists who created a secret mall apartment and tape art in children's hospitals.
- The documentary featured a 9/11 memorial called 'The Eleventh of September' with 490 life-size drawings of victims along four paths across Manhattan.
- The memorial's website had gone offline, so the author offered to restore it and reached out to Tape Art, receiving a positive response.
- The original site was built with early-2000s design (Photoshop, sliced images, HTML tables, PHP, database); the database was lost but files were preserved.
- The author used AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex) to reconstruct the site, reconnect names with drawings, and convert old media for modern browsers.
- A new 'Walk' feature was added for a mobile walking tour of the hearts, tested by the artists in Manhattan for usability improvements.
- The site relaunched for the 25th anniversary of 9/11, receiving over 2,000 visitors that day, and was praised for its positive use of AI.
- The project demonstrated how AI can augment human experience and preserve meaningful memorials.