Melodies
Muqing Wang
Advisor: Luisa Pereira
Melodies is an interactive website and digital archive that celebrates queer choruses worldwide, using collective music and storytelling to amplify LGBTQ+ voices, foster belonging for isolated youth, and build a global bridge of solidarity through song.
Project Description
Melodies is a digital sanctuary and interactive archive celebrating the power of queer choruses around the world. Rooted in personal narrative and global solidarity, the project honors how collective voices can uplift, resist, and connect. The website invites users to explore the stories, songs, and struggles of LGBTQ+ choirs—groups that often operate in marginalized contexts but use music as a transformative tool for expression and activism.
By visualizing these voices through interactive maps, immersive audio, and personal narratives, Melodies becomes more than a digital product—it becomes a bridge. For queer teens navigating isolation or identity, it offers a window into a supportive global community. For choirs themselves, it amplifies their presence and creates new possibilities for visibility, connection, and advocacy.
Melodies is also a deeply personal tribute. It reflects a journey from silence to song, from shame to solidarity. Through interviews, user-contributed content, and dynamic design, the site fosters belonging while spotlighting the beauty and power of queer resilience in sound.
In a world that too often tries to erase queer voices, this project insists: we are still here, still singing. It is an invitation to listen—and to let those voices echo.
Technical Details
Responsive web design
Research/Context
This project is deeply rooted in my personal journey as a queer individual navigating shame, isolation, and ultimately, healing through the power of community and song. At a time when I felt invisible and unloved, discovering a queer chorus in China changed everything. Their music was more than sound—it was belonging. That experience lit a path back to myself, and it’s the emotional core of Melodies.
Alongside my lived experience, I’ve drawn from a constellation of projects that explore queer identity, digital storytelling, and community-based archiving. Queering the Map showed me how personal stories can be powerful when mapped globally. Stonewall Forever illustrated how augmented experiences can preserve history and inspire action. Documentaries like Gay Chorus Deep South reminded me how choirs are not just musical groups—they are agents of change, especially in places where queer voices are silenced.
Melodies is the result of weaving together these references with my own history—a personal archive transformed into a collective one, built to honor the resilience, creativity, and harmony of queer voices across the globe.