The video clips shown below show people having sex, masturbating, and generally carrying on. If you don't want to see that kind of stuff, I suggest you show yourself out. My purposes here are not prurient, but I don't give a tupenny damn if they appear so to you, or, indeed, if you get off on it. Have fun.
Each of the eight pieces below is a short, looping, video clip. There are (at least) three perspectives in each: two webcams, and the person observing the webcams and filming them. I suppose you might count the perspective of each person, and the perspective of each camera, but that starts to get silly.
Webcam footage was publicly streamed on the exhibitionist and kinky sex site alt.com, some time in 2007. These broadcasts were meant to be viewed by others, and the two broadcasts in each piece took place simultaneously. I like to think of the people in each o the windows being aware of the other, but that is mere fancy. However the person filming the conjunction, the artist, is certainly viewing each of the two, and you, the viewer, are viewing the two and listening to the ambient sounds of the artist. You are thus included.
The clips are made by the terribly simple expedient of arranging two webcam windows beside each other, putting a crude cardboard frame over the two, and filming the result.
I think of these pieces as "coincidences". Here's the basic idea: these are (or rather were) live streams. So the two video windows are simultaneous, though independent. But there is a link from one to the other, and it lies through the mind of the maker of this work, me, at that time, in that place. Because I filmed the coincidence of these two streams, I united them, and thus make them address each other. That third perspective is made manifest through the music you hear, allowing you to almost enter into my position. But of course, you are actually viewing this after the fact, which makes the whole thing a recording.
When you notice a coincidence, you are making sense in a manner that links things otherwise unlinked. No supernatural explanation is necessary. As sense-makers, we are prone to coincidences. As literate sense-makers in a densely populated environment of texts, coincidences impinge, barrage, insist. They demand acknowledgement. We often call that "thinking", as if we bore sole responsibility.
Click the image to view the piece.
| Threesome 1. Left: a woman, possibly masturbating. Right, a man-woman couple having sex. Music: classical. | | Threesome 2. Left: a man, in profile. Right, the same couple as in threesome1. Music: classical. | | Threesome 3. Left: a man with erect cock. He holds a glass against his cock. Is to cool it down? To illustrate its admittedly impressive size? Right, the same couple again. Music: Steely Dan. | | Threesome 4. Left: a woman, topless. Right, a man-woman couple. She masturbates him as he stands in front of her. He types on the keyboard. Music: rock. | | Threesome 5. Left: a loading screen. Right, that couple again. Music: plaintive saxophone. | | Threesome 6. Left: a topless woman, no face. Right, the woman of the previous couple, this time alone interacting with the computer. Music: Drum Gahu (Ghana) and jazz. | | Threesome 7. Left: a man masturbating. Cock shot. Right, That woman again. Music: jazz. | | Threesome 8. Similar. Cock shot is at an odd angle. | | Threesome 9. Similar. Cock in close up. Cum. |