Art 511 Conceptual/Information Arts: Art & Telecommunications

Assignment 4: Web Camera Experiments

The Internet and the Web offer the possibility of easy real time communication of video information.  The most common examples of this capability are web cameras, live event multicasting, desktop video conferencing, and telepresence installations.  This technology has spawned extensive activity to create commercial, hobbyist and art based sites.  This assignment asks you to create an art event based on either a webcamera based web site or a performance you enact in some other video based Internet environment.  Your event should reflect on the new techno-cultural contexts created by Internet based video.

There are thousands of examples of web camera events both inside and out of art contexts.  There are cameras on all continents viewing tourist sites; everyday work sites; special events; keeping track to children or pets; monitoring weather, volcanos, or idustrial sites,;  video chat sites such as cuseeme or ivisit; video porn sites, etc.  Some sites propose to keep an eye on your house for you via web video; others propose to offer you tourist access to exoitic places.  You can find links on the cia webcamera links page.

Artists have also begun to experiment with this new content.  For links see Wilson page on webcameras.
 
 

Technical Requirements:

For lists of videoconferencing and webcamera software, see Wilson page on webcameras.