MCLC: Ai launches studio webcam

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: lara arnason (s0785444 at sms.ed.ac.uk)
Subject: Ai launches studio webcam
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Source: Art Info (4/2/12):
http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2012/04/02/now-you-can-be-just-like-th
e-chinese-government-ai-weiwei-launches-a-studio-webcam/

Now You Can Be Just Like the Chinese Government! Ai Weiwei Launches a
Studio Webcam

What do Damien Hirst
<http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/780197/20-artists-with-must-click-web-si
tes-from-tauba-auerbach-to-andrea-zittel> and Ai Weiwei have in common?
They both have live video feeds into their studios, but where Hirst¹s is
yet another exercise in cultivated narcissism, Ai¹s newly-launched ³WeiWei
Cam <http://weiweicam.com/>² is a political commentary on surveillance in
China and a wry joke at his own expense.

The WeiWei Cam shows four different views into the artist¹s studio,
including office, desk, bedroom and courtyard angles. Ai¹s Twitter feed is
displayed at the bottom right providing a live narration for the studio
goings on. Nothing much is happening at the moment ‹ Ai is just perched at
his desk, hand on the mouse.

Internet fans aren¹t the only ones watching Ai, however. Following the
artist¹s arrest last year, he has been under constant surveillance by the
Chinese government, the target of vans of policemen and a battalion of
cameras. The Kafka-esque watchers have been commemorated in works like the
marble sculpture ³Surveillance Camera
<http://www.art21.org/files/images/ai-art-2006-002-surveillancecamera.jpg>
.² Ai is now volunteering to be the subject of his own self-imposed
surveillance, an ironic act that also has a tinge of sadness to it.
[WeiWei Cam <http://weiweicam.com/>]

‹ Kyle Chayka