Post Y2K Glitches Unleashed

A time capsule, believed to be the possession of someone who lived about 125 years ago in the southern part of Long Island City before it was submerged, was discovered on a hot summer Friday.

Long Island City, and DOLIC

The excavation campaign, known as Project DOLIC (Discovery of Long Island City), has been led by the New York Artifacts Exploration organization since last year. They focus on the submerged areas of Wall Street, Roosevelt Island, Long Island City, and the northern parts of Greenpoint, which were heavily impacted by the 2101 NYC Great Flood. 

Around 125 years ago, Long Island City was rapidly developing, once ranked as the fastest-growing city in the U.S. in 2017 and even chosen as Amazon’s headquarters (though later revoked). However, during the Great Flood of 2101, most of Long Island City was submerged, leaving only today's LIC Lighthouse Island, Vernon Island, and Greenpoint Island. The once-glamorous high-rise buildings sank due to ground subsidence. As the area became prone to frequent flooding, residents evacuated to Woodside, and Long Island City was erased from the map, becoming part of history.

A few years ago, a scuba diving club gained attention when they discovered a fragment of the famous Pepsi Cola sign, torn off during the flood, near Vernon Island. This discovery became the most iconic symbol of today’s 2101 Museum. Following this, the exploration club joined DOLIC and expanded its search to the surrounding islands and unearthed more relics—fragments of tiles that once adorned an outdoor pool and the foundation stones of ferry stations.

Then, one friday last summer, Kira Youssef, a member of the exploration team, was surveying the area around Lighthouse Island when she noticed something reflecting sunlight from the ground. She sensed that something significant had occurred.

“I had passed by the rock pile many times, but it was the first time I saw something reflecting light like that. After the recent typhoon, I think the rocks shifted, revealing what was hidden beneath. The corner of a box was corroded, but sitting there and catching the sunlight gave me chills. It felt as if the box was speaking to me.”

Kyra Youssef, a member of DOLIC Exploration Team

Y2K meets Y2.1K

Today, the 2101 The Great Flood Artifact Preservation team unveiled the items in the box at the annual seminar at the Metropolitan Museum. To everyone’s surprise, it contained various electronic devices from the late 20th century.

Upon analysis, the items were determined to have been manufactured in Korea, including now-obsolete music players like CD and MD players, camera recorder (camcorder), and mobile device from Sprint’s mobile phone and the very first model of Apple's iPhone. There was also an English-Korean electronic dictionary, suggesting that the owner was likely a Korean immigrant.

The items manufactured between the early 2000s and 2010s appeared to be a cherished collection of multimedia devices. Remarkably well-preserved in a vacuum-sealed metal box, the devices were individually vacuum-wrapped. Despite some plastic deterioration caused by dust and moisture, the items were safely stored beneath the rock pile for over decades.

Based on the timeline, the owner would have been either a late Gen X-er or an older millennial. Their possession of Korean items from the early 2000s and American devices from the mid-2000s indicated a particular interest in electronics. While they may have treasured their devices, the inconsistent storage of batteries and cables suggests some lack of technical knowledge.


The MET and our team began tracing the owner's identity by looking up the serial numbers of the Sprint mobile device and the Apple iPhone 1. Sprint informed us that non-migrated customer data (who disconnected their service before the merger in the 2010s) had been destroyed after the merger and acquisition of T-Mobile.  Apple estimated it would take about three months to access the earliest archives of the first generation of iPhone user data for a match. Meanwhile, we sent the dust particles and debris from the box to the Department of Human Forensic Science Center. We received an analysis that the owner of these devices was identified as a woman, most likely an Asian woman of Korean descent.

Two months later, Apple responded.

“We found her.”

Jeeyoon Yoo

Designer, Content Creator, Multidisciplinary artist 
Active from 2020-2044, Died in 2066

Born and Raised in Korea
B.M. in Berklee College of Music
M.S. in NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Lived in Seoul, Jersey City, Harlem
LIC Resident from 2020 till her last day

Her name was Jeeyoon Yoo. She was an older millennial born in Korea. She spent her childhood in her home country before moving to the U.S. to study at a college in Boston. She purchased her first iPhone at a Boylston Street branch in Boston in 2007. She loved Apple products and acquired nearly 100 by her death.

After graduating, she settled in New York City, transitioning to a career in design and working for various media companies. She earned her master's degree from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and actively pursued her passion as an artist under the name "Kayla". She relocated to Long Island City to escape the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Harlem, Manhattan, and lived there until her death. Close friends and their children inherited her belongings, and the box is believed to have been lost when they fled Long Island City during the 2101 NYC Great Flood. 

Analysis of the devices and battery life cycle counts indicated she frequently used them and likely vacuum-sealed them for careful preservation. We later found her albums and YouTube channels from the 2020 Music and Media archives, allowing us to glimpse her creative world output, which might have been produced or influenced by the found devices. 

Some of her javascript works that were saved in the P5.js system early in the 2020s, including her debut single "Across The Galaxy".

Your Time Capsule

What do we want to preserve for the future today? Now, we have better products to preserve our belongings, such as the once popular and often referred to as “LYT (Lock Your Time)," a metal box equipped with locks and timers produced to be a small time capsule that you can even be buried with. After experiencing the 2101 NYC Great Flood, people wanted to protect their belongings in a physical form, and now it has become one of the most reliable lock boxes.

If you could use the product as the company's original intention—a time capsule—what would you choose to store? Perhaps some tangible cards of family photos from Clouds and virtual concert tickets of a beloved artist, mobile devices, genetic information chips, digital wallets containing our history and assets, and a small air container ball of this year. Or do we only include items like our beloved pet’s hair, an inherited ring from our nana, or handwritten birthday cards from loved ones?

What message would we leave for the future, explaining our present? and how do you want to be remembered by the people in a country you called your second home?

Although the world Jeeyoon lived in has long since sunk beneath the water, a piece of her life was preserved, delivering a message across time:
Her youth and passion were radiant and survived to this day.


(Please visit http://kayla.design/inp page and scroll down to see the reflection blog)