In 2015 I completed the Youtube World Project, where I sought to collect messages from as many places in the world as possible. It ended up at 126 different places. Since then, I have collected additional places as well as replacing some of the clips from the original 2015 video. The 2020 video landed on 155 places.

The set-up for the project is simply to have people say their first name and where they live in their own language. Locations vary from cities, the countryside, the tundra, lakes, mountains, coasts, and nature of ice.

The purpose of the project is to showcase everyday people in all those other places where we ourselves do not live. Our perception of the other place might have been formed by media and pop culture, so this is another layer of how we can perceive a place.

The people involved include friends, followers, friends of followers, relatives of distant connections, a true degrees of separation project.

The music was specifically composed for the project by Dane Walker, who represents the United States in the video. While the cuts visually throw us between continents, Dane’s music also travels around the world. I am very grateful for his contribution and his friendship.

So enjoy a trip around the world, and imagine that when the world opens up again, these are 155 different potential places to go.