An Evening with Ruby Justice Thelot

***Please note: This event will take place at the Books & Books in Coral Gables at 265 Aragon Ave. Tickets are FREE and books will be available for purchase at the event.

In an age defined by digital ephemerality, Ruby Thelot presents 'A Cyberarcheology of Checkpoints,' a poignant tribute to a vanished online community. Born in the comments section of a now-deleted YouTube video by Taia777, ‘Checkpoints’ were deeply personal life updates, capturing a decade of human experience in miniature narratives. From love and loss to the mundane yet profound, these posts became digital totems in a fleeting online world—a place where, in a rare union, strangers bared their souls.
“Checkpoint: My newborn son means everything to me, even if sometimes he’s a little shit and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months.” (June, 2017)
When YouTube erased the video—and with it, years of collective memory—due to copyright infringement, it seemed the chapter had closed. Yet, thanks to the meticulous archiving of a user named Rebane2001, this extraordinary anthology of connection, vulnerability, and resilience has been preserved.
In addition to the archived 'Checkpoints,' this book features a reflective essay on the history and cultural significance of these digital touchstones, an exclusive interview with Rebane2001, and a thought-provoking exploration of digital memory in the modern era.
'Checkpoints' is not merely a book; it is a rescue operation for the human spirit in a digital age. It challenges us to contemplate what we leave behind in bytes and pixels, urging us to remember that even in the vast architecture of the internet, the most minute details can harbor enormous weight.

Ruby Justice Thelot is a designer, cyberethnographer and artist based in New York. He is an adjunct professor of Design and Media Theory at New York University. He is the founder of the award-winning creative research and design studio 13101401 inc. He is the author of "A Cyberarchaeology of Checkpoints".

Event Venue

Books & Books, 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, United States