Webcam Venus

If asked if there is a difference between the Renaissance painting The Birth of Venus (1486) and a Playboy magazine centerfold, most might say it's no contest: one is art and the other exploitative pornography. One is a treasure of human ideals and achievement, the other smut. Are Botticelli and Hugh Hefner really that different? Both project fantasy and erotic imagery through the media of their day. Both are vehicles of gender politics, defining standards of beauty and sexuality. What if adult performers—already mediated sex objects—struck “classic” poses? In Webcam Venus, Pablo Garcia & Addie Wagenknecht asked online sexcam performers to replicate iconic works of fine art. This piece is an experimental homage to both fine art and the lowbrow internet phenomenon of cams. Sexcams use webcams and chat interfaces to connect amateur adult performers with an audience. Users log on to see men, women, transsexuals, couples and groups broadcast their bodies and sexuality live for the public, often performing for money. To create this experiment in high and low media, we assumed anonymous handles and spent a few hours each day for a month asking performers: “Would you like to pose for me?”