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NET ART
ANTHOLOGY

VVEBCAM

Petra Cortright

2007

Petra Cortright’s VVEBCAM (2007) is a YouTube video in which the artist stares intently into a webcam as cartoonish clip art figures float around her face.

This early example of YouTube-as-medium departed from the usual tropes of the camgirl genre, lacking erotic innuendo or a direct address to the camera. Instead, it depicted Cortright as a computer user, deeply immersed in the consumer-grade visual effects available via her webcam.

Unlike a typical camgirl, Cortright also engaged in all-out flame wars with her commenters. She published the video with a list of accompanying keywords copied from spam accounts, thereby drawing in viewers who were trawling YouTube for titillating or offensive material, and cheating their expectations. Thus, the dynamics of YouTube as an early social media platform were incorporated into the work itself.

These spam keywords also led to YouTube’s decision to take down the video in 2010. Presented here is a new archival reconstruction of the VVEBCAM YouTube page, which situates the video in its original context for the first time in more than seven years.

Petra Cortright, VVEBCAM (2007). Screenshot of reconstructed YouTube page. View image at full size. (Content warning: contains offensive language.)

VISIT WORK

“Disinterested delight permeates Petra Cortright’s work.”

– Paul Chan, Spike Art Quarterly, Winter 2010.

VVEBCAM was one of a number of the Cortright's experiments with uploading short video works onto YouTube. These videos usually featured the artist in a bedroom or another private space.

READ BRUCE STERLING’S ESSAY ON VVEBCAM

Like the rest of Cortright’s videos, VVEBCAM is shot from the perspective of the desktop computer. The artist is not actively presenting herself to the camera; rather, she seems engrossed by the screen, as she manipulates the default graphics of her off-the-shelf webcam.

A dizzyingly colorful array of buzzing bees, bouncing tennis balls, UFO spaceships, and snowflakes dance across and around her face.

There is nothing special about the graphics or Cortright’s use of them–and this is what differentiates this work from mainstream camgirls, who strove to stand out.

“I have that attitude that I just can’t be bothered – maybe it is a millennial thing. YouTube is filled with people making webcam videos of themselves, talking about whatever, journalling their lives, performing for some audience. It was interesting to have my videos on there, which were related to other videos people were doing but they had a lot of very big differences and were very much in their own realm.” - Petra Cortright

Petra Cortright, VVEBCAM (2007). Screenshot of reconstructed YouTube page. View image at full size. (Content warning: contains offensive language.)

Each video was accompanied by a long list of search tags–random-seeming, banal keywords like “KFC,” “border patrol,” and “trans fat” as well as provocative, titillating, and even offensive search terms–terms which appeal to the worst elements of internet user culture.

Cortright copied these lists of words from other YouTubers who used them to draw traffic to their page. The exact keywords used on VVEBCAM also appear in the video “Paris Hilton Nude on the beach,” which consists of a short text displayed against a plain blue background and was published in 2006.

This text was likely collected as part of Cortright’s ongoing process of gathering digital detritus and spam and saving them in a folder on her desktop labeled “HELL.”

Petra Cortright, HELL_TREE (Badlands Unlimited, 2012). Screenshot of ebook.

Strings of spam text have continued to appear in her work over the years, figuring in titles such as :swat 2 walkthru +home! +”for sale”, (2013) and appearing in her ebook HELL_TREE (Badlands Unlimited, 2012).

“if only someone could only see the notepad files, text messages, emails all to myself, meaningless to-do lists of google image search keywords, things to twitter later, ideas for some .gif, ideas for certain projects that will never happen... i make folders on my computer and to name them i pound on the keyboard like eirtuyu43'; and then that is the name of the folder... then i decided i would put all the 35asgyewwm,[ folders into one big folder that folder is called HELL and now it is the only folder on my desktop and i dunno what the fuck is in there.” – Petra Cortright, 2008

Petra Cortright, HELL_TREE (Badlands Unlimited, 2012). Screenshot of ebook.

Utilizing provocative terminology to lure viewers to her site, she ultimately turns her own gaze onto her viewers, who happen upon this humorous video of the artist rather than images or video of the keywords they desire.

Perhaps because of her inaccurate keywords, VVEBCAM often attracted harsh and offensive comments from the public. Cortright returned insults to her commenters with equal abandon, and the active commentary that resulted increased the popularity of her videos.

Later, Cortright set up a video catalog which determined the price of her video works algorithmically based on YouTube view counts. She considered this to be a way of deriving value from her detractors.

Thus, views and comments were as much a part of the piece as Cortright’s video. This interest in the social nature of the web can be attributed to her participation in the surf club Nasty Nets (founded 2006), an “internet surfing club” in which a group of artists posted new work and online discoveries in a long-running dialogue, in which commentary (and conflict) were as important as content.


Cover artwork for Nasty Nets DVD (2008).

Likewise, the work exemplifies Nasty Nets’ embrace of the “default” aesthetics of consumer-driven digital culture. Rather than positioning themselves as technical experts or hackers, Nasty Nets’ central concern was with users and user-generated culture. Along these lines, VVEBCAM can be understood as a portrait of the artist as a user.

More From CHAPTER 3: 2005-2010

11/30/17 Hell in Lamb UC Pedro Vélez 2003 - 2007
12/06/17 into time. com Rafaël Rozendaal 2010
12/14/17 EverythingIveEverWantedtoKnow.com Martine Syms 2007
12/21/17 Nine Eyes of Google Street View Jon Rafman 2008 - ongoing
01/12/18 Art Thoughtz Jayson Musson 2010 - 2012
01/19/18 Domestic Tension Wafaa Bilal 2007
02/02/18 Scandalishious Ann Hirsch 2008 - 2009
03/08/18 Blind Spot Miao Ying 2007
02/22/18 93.1 JACK FM LOS ANGELES 2008 Guthrie Lonergan 2008 - 2012
03/22/18 Refresh Kristin Lucas 2007
03/29/18 I-BE AREA in Out of Order YouTube messy-format Ryan Trecartin 2008
04/20/18 RMB City Cao Fei 2008 - 2011
04/27/18 Versions Oliver Laric 2010
05/04/18 Grobari Aleksandra Domanović 2009
05/10/18 out_4_pizza Laura Brothers 2007 - ongoing
06/01/18 Transborder Immigrant Tool Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0/b.a.n.g. lab (Micha Cárdenas, Amy Sara Carroll, Ricardo Dominguez, Elle Mehrmand, and Brett Stalbaum) 2007 - ongoing
06/14/18 The Revolving Internet Constant Dullaart 2010
06/20/18 Spirit Surfers Kevin Bewersdorf, Paul Slocum, Marcin Ramocki, Ethan Hayes-Chute, John Transue, Luke Murphy, Krist Wood, Aron Namenwirth, Harm van den Dorpel, Dragan Espenschied, Travis Hallenbeck, Olia Lialina, Peter Wilson, Patrick Armstrong, Patrick Groth, Peter Blasser, Chad Hopper, Rachel Abelson, Petra Cortright 2008 - ongoing
08/07/18 Paperrad.org Paper Rad 2001 - 2008

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