Ottowa Citizen Online
June 10th, 1998

Candid Camera in cyberspace

Voyeuristic sites range from sheer silliness to truly interesting Christopher Guly The Ottawa Citizen Last Friday, Jim Carrey's latest flick, The Truman Show, opened in Ottawa. Already, there's a buzz the 36-year-old Ontario-born actor could, like Tom Hanks with Forrest Gump, take home an Oscar at next year's Academy Awards. While Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis relied on technology to position the unwitting Gump in situations with historical -- and dead --personalities, The Truman Show director Peter Weir reveals how technology can be used to turn private lives into public spectacle. Witness Mr. Carrey's character, Truman Burbank, whose life is the subject of a round-the-clock television show, without him knowing it. That alone has been enough to fuel the debate over the potential invasiveness of electronic media such as the Internet. But what if the "target" of electronic surveillance wants to be surveyed? Eliminate the "unwitting" aspect of Internet voyerism, for example, and you have an entirely new ball game. To play it, you need the right equipment: a desktop computer, Internet access, a digital camera and software, like CU-SeeMe. Then you're ready to hit that great, expansive field in cyberspace and show the world something you want it to see. Given the appeal of such voyeuristic TV fare as The Jerry Springer Show, it's not a stretch to figure the same dynamic holds true for Webcam or Live Cam sites on the Internet.

And so it is that we have Ana Voog, a 32-year-old Minneapolis performance artist who, through her www.AnaCam.com site, not only shows us what she looks like and what's she doing throughout the day, but posts detailed information about herself (bra size: 32D, circumference of head: 21", worst fear: "to throw up in public.") Ms. Voog may be bold, but she's not unique and certainly not the first person to turn the Internet spotlight upon herself.

JenniCam (www.jennicam.org) has been around for two years, has attracted such visitors as The Truman Show's Mr. Weir, and has made its proprietor, 22-year-old Jennifer Ringley, a "ceWebrity," according to Newsweek magazine. It's also spun off into its own Web cast, the JenniShow (www.thesync.com), where the star interacts with friends, and a tribute site, "The Original Jenni-Parody" (wescam.inline-design.com), run by a fellow named Wes Denaro. All this frenetic activity has obviously left JenniCam's creator somewhat fatigued, informing us (by e-mail) she's "turning down all interviews for the foreseeable future for personal reasons."