General:
Chatroulette is based on three parts, in each of which the audience and the performer change. It deals with the mechanisms of social networking sites in general and specificly with those produced by chatting through a webcam. The name is taken from the chatting platform chatroulette.com, which was also the media used for the performance. On chatroulette the users are coincidentally connected via webcams and chatting by using text or sound. Everybody can stop a conversation by clicking the "next" button.
Part 1:
After a short announcement about what she's going to show, the performer goes to her laptop and moves the turntable. The webcam now shows her face in front of a white wall. She starts to chat by using text only. In her encounters she tries to talk about most trivial things and make smalltalk, e.g. about the surroundings in which the fellow performers on chatroulette present themselves or ask them about their day. In general, she appears very girlish and nice. She flirts with the people in order to make them stay longer with her. Because of the sexual nature of some of the chatters, this is a strategy of distraction from the inavoidable. When men start wanking their dicks, she eventually starts to pick her nose.
Part 2:
After 20' she turns the table again. Now the laptop is facing the projecton, which leads to an infinite repetition of the image displayed for the performer's webcam. The chatters now perceive themselves without a partner, their webcams have become mirrors. The performer grabs the microphone. She asks the fellow chatters about their performance and the audience about the performers. She then starts to talk about the nature of self-representation, about the state of shocks and the creatural activities in daily encounters and encounters that use technical equipments. She finishes the speech by accentuating the limits of webcams and phantasies and performances without actually present bodies.
Part 3:
After 5' the performer switches the microphone off and places it down. She invites the audience to eat apples with her and therewith create an image for the audience on chatroulette. She switches an additional light on and picks up the box with the apples, which was placed on the floor. She turns the table with the computer. The webcam now is showing the audience and the audience is seeing themselves in the chat on the projection. When the performer has finished distributing the apples, she sits down in the audience. The audience starts to interact with the website by themselves. After 10' the performer stands up, thanks everybody for their activity and stops the interaction by closing the laptop.
The full text can be downloaded here.
Final direction:
Boris Brüderlin
Chatroulette from Brigitte Dätwyler on Vimeo.
Documentary film of the Performance
from May 2010
at Kasko, Basel
36'
http://brigittedaetwyler.ch/performance/chatroulette
© Brigitte Dätwyler