Peer Review: Telepistemology in the Age of the Webcam

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Peer Review Telepistemology in the Age of the
Webcam

• Alison Bambridge
• School of Media Studies
• University of Sussex, UK

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Telepistemology

• The study of knowledge acquired at a distance
• Do we believe what we see?
• I link therefore I am

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Main Questions

• Have the introduction of webcams on the Internet
  changed, informed or contested what we think of
  as information?
• Has the convergence of technology and society
  through webcamsaltered how we interact and
  communicate?

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RemoteLounge

• Opened in 2001.
• Located in between the Village and the Flat Iron
  district of New York and situated between an
  adult video store and a Mexican restaurant.

• Over 60 screens and consoles at each table which
  control the cameras.
• Images are projected on screen and can be
  captured and downloaded to the website for later
  retrieval.
• Cameras can pan in on people or on parts of
  people.
• Table consoles permit the patron to contact
  someone they may be interested in communicating
  with, or to order more drinks, by pressing a
  button.
• Wide range of cultural sub-groups.

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Jennicam

• Webcam site of Jennifer Ringley, a college
  student who in 1996 set up a webcam in her
  apartment when she left home to go to college.
• The first personal life online site -- at one
  stage was getting 100 million hits a week.
•  

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1. Have the introduction of webcams on the
Internet changed, informed or contested what we
think of as information?

• In entering the bar you give up the right to
  privacy and accept that any images, recordings or
  actions are the property of CEV, (Controlled
  Entropy Ventures) the owners of the club
• Interaction is commodified

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2. Has the convergence of technology and society
through webcams altered how we interact and
communicate?

• Nobody gets to violate anyone elses privacy in a
  manner they would not be subject to themselves
  -- environment designed to encourage exploration,
  experimentation and human interaction rather than
  control them

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RemoteLounge
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Conclusion

• Webcameras provide information and facilitate
  communication.
• What value this information has is difficult to
  authenticate.
• Communication is often imbalanced.
• The message mutates to fit the medium