It’s Completely Anonymous

It’s Completely Anonymous (2024) is a participatory online platform where visitors slow down to answer the question left by the previous participant, and then leave a new question for the next person. Instead of profiles, metrics, or surveillance, the project creates an evolving chain of anonymous exchanges, really to be seen as an archive built through reciprocity, curiosity, and care.

At the NYC PIT Pop Up, participants will engage with the platform in real time, encountering the words of strangers and contributing their own. Each interaction sustains a shared dialogue that spans across time, emphasizing presence without visibility and connection without identity.

The project explores what becomes possible when we design platforms that resist speed, extraction, and quantification. The site was hand-coded / developed using html, css, javascript, and perl. By centering anonymity and slowness as civic values, It’s Completely Anonymous imagines a digital commons where participation is grounded in reflection rather than performance.

It’s Completely Anonymous is a project by Emily D’Achiardi, University of California, Santa Barbara.