Voyeurism

Peeking at cinema voyeur proves a dull undertaking.

 

From: The Boston Herald  | Date: September 19, 1999  | Author: Brown, Joel 
 
It's amazing, sometimes, the uses to which voyeur Internet technology can be put. Communications, business, medicine, cultural exchange, yada yada yada.

But let's not forget voyeurism.

A press release from WebcamNow touts a back-to-school rush of college students setting up dormroom Web cams to broadcast their lives to the Net.

That's right - attach a little computer to the side of your monitor, dial up your Internet connection and you're broadcasting to the world in voyeur style.

The question is, why?

No surprise, WebcamNow offers free Web cam software, and will host your Web cam broadcast, also free, while selling the actual little web cam to connect to your computer. College students are a prime market, because they tend to be on-line-savvy, and also tend to have college-funded, 24-hour Internet connections in their dorm rooms.

Webcam's press release says this system "fulfills students' desires to communicate with their parents, friends at other schools and others who want to share in the excitement of the college-dorm experience through a totally new and very inexpensive medium. ... We've noticed students broadcasting parties and initiation events, sporting activities, hanging out and other interesting aspects of their daily lives."

Yes, interesting. Things sure have changed since I was in college when there was very little that went on in a dorm that anyone wanted their parents - much less the entire world - to see.

But, dropping by WebcamNow recently, I've found that these days there's very little going on in college dorms that anyone would to see.

There's one kind of pasty-looking guy who seems to have been typing naked at night, but he's home alone, and so far, WebcamNow has shown me no wild beer parties, carnal escapades, subversive conspiracies or even "hanging out" of an interesting nature.

What I have seen is people in baseball caps staring back at the camera, visitors to Web cam rooms making faces at the camera and a lot of low-resolution shots of textbooks and closet doors. Maybe college is different this decade, or maybe I have to wait till Saturday night.

Sometimes there are non-college camera locations as well - there's one incredibly 1950s-style office (insurance? real estate?) with conservatively dressed guys sitting at plain desks in front of a blank white wall and talking on the phone. For some reason this is a lot more interesting than the productions of all those Web-savvy college kids, and I wish it offered sound. I imagine it sounds like David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" dialogue, and I wonder how and why they decided to install a Web cam.

Poke around the Net and you'll find numerous TV-station-owned live-feed cams around the country where you can see, say, sunrise over Atlanta or drizzle in Pittsburgh. There are also live animal cams at zoos. And talk about cultural exchange - at www.fat.co.uk/world/index.html, you'll get a randomly chosen shot from Web cam somewhere around the world; I'm in Ankara as we speak - or is that Islamabad?

At www.iseelucy.com, media guerilla Michael Moore had set up a camera focused on the windows on Lucianne Goldberg, the New York literary agent at the heart of L'affair Lewinsky. He wanted to give her a taste of loss of privacy. She immediately responded by at least pretending to sell advertising space on her blinds. Moore's camera is currently down, but he is polling as to who his next Web cam target should be.

But it's the interesting personal projects that make this different from other media. What do people want to share with the world? Exhibitionism to match all the voyeurs out there? Desperate longing for connection in an impersonal, high-tech world? Not enough hobbies?

It is baffling.

There's the Car Cam (www.car-cam.com), in which some Bay Area geek totes his Web cam around with him in his Ford Explorer, connected to a laptop and radio modem. His reasons: "1. I have no life! 2. I want hot chicks in my car! 3. I love photographing roads!"

OK, dude, rock on.

Even more elaborate is The Nerdman Show (www.nerdman.com), which describes itself as a real-life "Truman Show." With what it calls a "world-record" 17 cameras, this site chronicles the home and work life of a, well, nerd. He's been at it for three years now. And if you want to see his cat use its litter box - go to the gallery of previous images!

Sigh.

If you want voyeur Web cam thrills, fun and excitement on the road, dial up www.ny-taxi.com, where New York cabbie Clever DaSilva is live from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. As these words are written, he seems to be dropping a woman with an umbrella off at the Liberty Travel Building. This site's drawback is that you don't get his trip info, so you have no idea where he is unless you can see a landmark.

Still, at least there's always the possibility of a holdup, which is more than Nerdman can say....voyerism at its best.