assignment #1: meeting 10 people on Chatroulette

9/30 8:28pm

My first encounter was with a guy from Australia. He was sitting in his living room and I could tell he was from the other side of the world because it seemed like it was the middle of the day for him. Our conversation started out slow. We told each other where we were from. It quickly got awkward because his facial expression wasn't changing at all and he didn't seem interested in talking to me. He then asked, “Do you do this often?” and I answered, “no.” He responded saying, “Thought so,” and ended the session. He was one of those who presented himself in banal reality (as mentioned by Sourkes), in a clear setting with no change at all in his movement, that there was definitely not much to see or ask. I suppose the same went for him since I was nervous and presented myself as very ordinary.

10/2 3:59pm

I decided to have my second try at a time in the afternoon, hoping that there would be less obscene encounters than the previous night. This time, it was a man from Stockholm, Sweden. Similar to the first guy, this man seemed to have an inexpressive face. Eventually, the webcam view began to look creepy because all I could see was his head and nothing below. To add to the emptiness of the view, the wall behind him was blank and there was no background to support my image of him. He then said, “Do you want to see something?” and began to shift his webcam downwards. I noticed that he had no shirt on and I quickly moved on to the next. This man was a prepared performer who wanted to be seen, so he created a short narrative where he first formed a sense of fear through the unknown, and then used his webcam to uncover the unknown. The way he included camera movement to his narrative made his “performance” similar to a cinema.

10/2 4:10pm

Next was a 17 years old boy from Germany. At first, I wasn't sure if he was really chatting with me because he was facing a different angle and didn't change his facial expression at all. Our conversation was fairly normal and constant, and I was less nervous because he was younger than me. Out of no where, he began saying, “plz show,” and kept repeating that phrase over and over, but with absolutely no facial expression. Instead, he frequently used smiley faces in his conversation, but what he was saying didn't match his face at all. His indifferent expression confused me and put me off; it seemed as if didn't acknowledge that he was viewed by us, but was purely being a spectator.

10/2 4:20pm

This man(?) from UK displayed a blurry wall in place of his face. I asked him why he hid his face, and he said it was because he didn't have any clothes on. Unlike the other naked guys, this man wasn't as bold as the other “exhibitionists” who displayed themselves openly. But while he wasn't willing to reveal his intimate self physically, he was more open to me through words. He told me that he wasn't confident in his body and that's why he hid himself. Because I wasn't talking to a person's face, the experience was more virtual rather than realistic. I actually felt more comfortable chatting to this man because his identity was unclear therefore unrealistic.

10/2 4:34pm

Next, I got two guys from Texas who seemed to be college students. They immediately started joking around in excitement, making racist comments and yelling about Texas pride. Eventually they calmed down and began to be more friendly. After a few minutes of chitchatting, one of the guys performed a Dave Matthews song on his guitar for us. Unlike the other guys who went on Chatroulette alone, these guys seemed more open about showing their identities and personalities in front of the camera. I think that generally, people are more at ease to performing for the webcam when they have friends as spectators on their side. On the other hand, performing alone in front of the webcam is different because the seer is mediated by the virtual, and the immediate spectator is merely a recording device.

10/4 10:20am

I decided to try it earlier this time, in the late morning, to see if I'd get different types of people. I got another no-face; this time the camera was facing the window. This person wouldn't say where he/she was from, and I couldn't exactly tell their gender. He/she spoke in broken English, and it sounded like he/she was making up most of the things in our chat. This person was using the webcam to invent their identity and 'try out' a new one, but wasn't too smooth in making it sound realistic. This Chatroulette session was more abstract than the other ones because I couldn't form in my mind an imaginary figure of who I was talking to.

10/4 5: 45pm

This girl lookedreally bored and uninterested. She asked me why I was on Chatroulette so I explained that it was for an art class. I asked her the same thing and she said she was bored and was looking for something entertaining and fun. She sounded like she was only browsing to find something to watch, similar to flipping channels of the television. I asked if she was willing to “be seen” as well, and she just shrugged and said, “sure, it's not like I'm ever gonna see them again.” She was wiling to push the certain limit because she knew that there was no consequences for her in the real world.

10/4 5:48pm

Next was some guy from Colorado. This was the first person who actually waved at me when the chat first opened up. He told me he used to live in California, so he was easier for me to relate to. He was a college student as well, and our conversation went on ordinarily. Soon enough we ran out of things to say because our encounter became more immediate. There was no unknown or mysteriousness, and eventually there was nothing interesting left to see to say.

10/4 10:08pm

My ninth try was with another young guy. He seemed creepy, sitting in a dark room with his face lit up from the computer screen. He said that the most interesting thing he's seen on Chatroulette was naked women. I asked why his view was so dark, and he said it was to hide his face. I asked, “why not block his face completely,” and he answered that women will “skip” him unless his face was showing. Unlike Jennifer Ringley who did not care what her viewers looked like, some performers on Chatroulette do care who they perform to, and seem to only do a show for people who show themselves.

10/4 10:11pm

My last person I met was a man from Hungary, who seemed to be working in his office at home. He said he was trying it out because his nephew told him about it. I asked for his thoughts on Chatroulette, and he responded saying that it was interesting to meet people from around the world. He also said that next time, he might disguise himself because he feels uncomfortable being displayed in the open, and he'd rather pretend like he's someone else. His idea can be tied to Sourke's idea of the “reconstruction of the self” and playing with one's identity. Although this man probably thought of this idea for privacy reasons, his actions can give him an opportunity to play as a performer.