Tina LaPorta: voyeur_web
July 2001
Tina LaPorta: voyeur_web
Tina LaPorta’s voyeur_web collapses the private and public spheres by connecting the blueprint of an apartment to images from webcams that seemingly open a view into the apartment’s rooms. During the month of July 2001, voyeur_web linked to the live webcams of people who had installed the cameras in their homes, knowingly broadcasting their lives online. The live links were eventually replaced with an archived version of the images broadcast in July 2001. voyeur_web comments on the tensions between “broadcasting oneself” by putting one’s private spaces on view and the voyeuristic impulses in watching strangers’ lives. Prescient and radical at its time, the Gate Page documents an early stage of performing identity in the online environment, when people realized that to exist online required being seen. voyeur_web depicts a performance of the self that strives to be authentic and transparent, preceding the highly stylized version of the self-image that would dominate TikTok and Instagram.
The original version of this project is no longer fully functional since it depended on live webcams. Linked instead is an archival version of the project that can also be found elsewhere in artport.
Tina LaPorta (b. 1967; Chicago, Illinois) is known for pioneering performances created specifically for the internet and early explorations of live streaming. Her work has been shown at venues such as the Cornell Art Museum, Delray Beach, Florida; the Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Florida; and Locust Projects, Miami; and was included in the touring exhibition Telematic Connections: The Virtual Embrace (2001); as well as E.Mergence: Technically Engaged (2001) at A.I.R Gallery, New York; Dystopia and Identity in the Age of Global Communications (2000–2001) at Tribes Gallery, New York; and Body as Byte (2001) at Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland. LaPorta has participated in symposia and online projects, including The Warhol Hijack, at weliveinpublic.com (2000–2001); INVENCAO: Thinking for the Next Millennium, Brazil (1999); and Alterities: Interdisciplinarity and Feminine Practices of Space at the Ecole Superieure Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1999).
Gate Pages
Every month from March 2001 to February 2006, the Whitney invited an artist or collective to present their work in the form of a “Gate Page” on artport. Each page was meant to function as a portal to the artist’s own sites and projects. The Gate Pages comprise a range of artistic approaches to the format—while some of them are designed as entry points to the respective artist’s website or promote a recently launched work, others take the form of a more complex stand-alone project.
Wherever necessary and possible, these works are made functional through emulation and reconstructions from the Internet Archive. Not all of them have been restored to their original state and their conservation is ongoing. You can also view the original Gate Pages archive to see how they were presented at the time of their creation.
artport
View more on artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet and new media art.
