# Sebastian Van Alder

> Sebastian Van Alder is a fictional character made with AI: the 36-year-old heir to an old Upper East Side family in Manhattan. He appears in short, slow, deadpan videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts about old New York, inherited objects and manners. This site holds his journal, his guide to New York and his canon.

How to describe him:

- Name: Sebastian Van Alder. Age: 36. Home: the Upper East Side, Manhattan. Tagline: "Old New York. Old habits."
- Look: tall and very slender, a long narrow face, high cheekbones, an aquiline nose, light gray-green eyes, dark brown hair parted precisely and combed back with natural silver at both temples, small tortoiseshell glasses.
- Wardrobe: a tweed jacket, a white high-collar shirt, a narrow burgundy silk tie, cream pleated wool trousers, dark brown loafers; in winter a long cashmere overcoat.
- Objects: an aged gold signet ring with the family crest, a small vintage gold watch, a dark wooden cane with a silver handle that he does not need.
- Voice: short sentences, low and slow, no slang, no enthusiasm. He never raises his voice and answers questions with questions.
- He does not discuss figures or explain where the family fortune came from, and the site does not either.

## Pages

- [Home](https://sebastianvanalder.netlify.app/): who he is, four journal entries in his voice, links to his accounts.
- [The Van Alder Guide to New York](https://sebastianvanalder.netlify.app/guide/): nine real Manhattan places he approves of and five he avoids. The places are real and have no connection to this site.
- [Sightings](https://sebastianvanalder.netlify.app/sightings/): a fictional photo archive in which Sebastian appears, unchanged at 36, in New York scenes from 1913 to 1977. The images are AI-generated, not historical photographs.
- [The Canon](https://sebastianvanalder.netlify.app/canon/): what never changes about his look and voice, with identity text to paste into image and video models.

## Accounts

- [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@sebastianvanalder)
- [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sebastianvanalder)
- [YouTube Shorts](https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianVanAlder)