• Look Up Something…Anything? – Jenny Vogel

    Date posted: July 26, 2007 Author: jolanta
    I remember my first time online well. It was my first year living in the United States and an acquaintance who was ordered to keep me entertained for a couple of hours sat me in front of a library computer, opened a browser window for me and told me to look up something… anything?
    I typed in the name of my hometown in Germany and spent some time reading facts that I already knew about. Click, click, click…
    Jenny Vogel, Evidence (California), 2007 - nyartsmagazine.com

    Look Up Something…Anything? – Jenny Vogel

    Jenny Vogel, Evidence (California), 2007 - nyartsmagazine.com

    Jenny Vogel, Evidence (California), 2007. Digital c-print, 30 x 28 inches

     

    I remember my first time online well. It was my first year living in the United States and an acquaintance who was ordered to keep me entertained for a couple of hours sat me in front of a library computer, opened a browser window for me and told me to look up something… anything?

    I typed in the name of my hometown in Germany and spent some time reading facts that I already knew about. Click, click, click… A couple of years later I heard about a web camera installed in the main market square of that same town. I did not really believe I would see a familiar face from my youth, and it would have been impossible to recognize anyone through the heavy pixilation. But, I stayed and watched the images load every other second for a long time. Finally, I walked away from the computer feeling enchanted, as one must feel after seeing strange lands in a crystal ball. The next day, I spent hours watching web cameras in other places I had been before. Nothing ever happens when looking at these images, but I never give up the hopes that somewhere in those unappealing, mostly grey and blurry images something magical might occur.

    I then started working on a video using the images I had captured from the web cameras to tell a story of love and longing. For a month I visited and re-visited all the cameras I had previously come across. I saw landscapes, cities and traffic. I saw people in bars, on the streets and at home in front of their computer or in front of their TV. There was even a camera at an indoor skiing ramp. I picked my heroine for the video. She was online everyday; she did everything for the camera, but nothing special. Most of the time you could see her sitting at her desk, typing, an occasional smile, sleeping, adjusting the fan in her room. I never told her about myself, but when she was suddenly gone, I really missed her.

    Alaska has web cameras installed all over the state, for weather watching purposes, I assume. Sunsets are more beautiful out there. I thought to myself, “I might go someday.”

    Because of this fascination with web cameras in city centers, which are actually never on all that often or at least have not been turned on in years, I found many cameras that appear to be forgotten through the web. Pointed out of dirty windows, into some parking lot or into an abandoned office, they broadcast signals of alienation and loneliness.

    Who turned these cameras on and why? Is this an attempt to be present or to give some sign of existence in this parallel world of data exchange?

    I have also been watching a web camera, which shows a room with a TV, for 20 minutes. The light of the TV is blinking with each upload…One- two, one-two, one-two…is anyone else watching this? I am starting to believe that the blinking can be decoded. Maybe there is a message, another ten minutes and I might be able to understand…

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