The Art & Illusion of the Web Cam by Ken Sanes The introduction of the web cam has made it possible for anyone to transmit a live, moving, image over the Internet. As a result, it seems that a great many people suddenly have the potential to become stars because they now possess the single most important tool for achieving celebrity status -- a screen that will convey their presence to a large audience. But Internet technology isn't stopping
with the transmission of live images on web pages. In addition, it is
possible for people to wrap The simple skin shown at reduced size to the left provides a good example. In place of offering a bare cam image, the image is wrapped in the graphic skin of a television set, making it appear that the person on the cam is on TV. The idea behind these graphics is obvious -- not only do they liven up what are often mundane images, but they also allow the people on cam to more fully express their fantasies and desires. Appearing to put people on television, for example, lets them express the ultimate cam fantasy alluded to above -- namely that they are media stars with an audience of millions. On the next two pages, we will look at a number of these cams and their accompanying graphics to see if we can get an idea what this trend is about. All of the cams appear on Camarades, a web site that has a large number of web pages with graphic skins, where people can display their live cam images. As we will see, what turns out to be most interesting about these creations is the way the live cam images interact with the graphics, creating new meanings and aesthetic experiences for viewers that may or may not have been intended by those involved. With that said, we are ready to examine the web cam pages. From here you can get an overview of seven evocative web cams and skins at Web Cams as Art. Or you can go to the column, Zeus on a Web Cam, about one particularly interesting web cam and skin. In each case, the graphics we will examine were created either by TrueTech, the parent company of Camarades, or by users of the Camarades web cam site, according to a TrueTech spokesman. ________________________________________________________________________ * The author has no
connection with Camarades or the parent company, TrueTech. |
their
web cam image in "skins", which are graphics that incorporate
the cam image into a larger design.