Webcams and Emin's bed

I have a new laptop, after my old one died in a pot noodle related incident.
This new one is great, brilliant for all things media...except it's going to have to go back. It restarts itself randomly, driving me to distraction.
The brand support are useless, sending 'copied and pasted' responses, and giving up after step 1 and 2 don't work. I would continue sending them 'will somebody PLEASE answer me', but I fear I'll be ignored even more (is that possible?) for sounding like a crazed computer-support-attention-seeking weirdo.

Anyway, that wasn't the point. I have this new laptop, and it has an integrated webcam. I knew this but hadn't really thought about it...I've never used a webcam in my life, and had no desire to. I'm a photographer for a reason, I like being behind the camera. This webcam isn't so easy to ignore though, as when it cycles through screensavers, the laptop decides to show the webcam view not in one screen, not even two screens, but three, just in case I have narcissistic tendencies, perhaps.

I don't.

My image scares me.

My beloved husband pointed out that I would need to work out how to turn it off, in case someone hacked in and was watching me. I'd never even considered that before, but I suppose there are crazy people out there, and maybe people would get a kick out of that sort of thing. We then got talking about all the webcams that you can 'watch' live online around the clock. I find it a bit weird. A bit voyeuristic...

There must be some people who are comfortable with this though, or they wouldn't set up their webcam so that the worldwide internet surfing population could watch their every move. I have no desire to watch what happens in someone's lounge/kitchen, especially not bathroom/bedroom. That's just creepy.

It made me think about Tracy Emin's bed though. The installation that she set up at the Tate, and how it got such a marmite reaction. I never saw it, I just read about it and saw photographs, so I never had the whole voyeuristic experience.

Photo from http://www.nhuhuy.com/

I kind of wish I had seen it though, as I think my reaction to the exhibit would be very telling of how much I can deal with voyeuristic tendencies in myself. I believe we all have them, but I don't believe that we can all accept that it's natural to have them. Of course, accepting that these tendencies are part of what make us human doesn't mean going overboard with our use of them.

Would I have stayed back from the installation, feeling an imaginary wall that stopped me from getting too close into someone else's personal space? Or would I have rationalised that Emin had placed it there, I had gone to see it, so I had every right to have a good poke around? I'm really not sure.

I just know that I would never put my mess out for all to see. I'm too embarassed. I also think some things should be kept private. Yet I still find this exhibit fascinating, and wish I could have seen it.

I cannot seem to reconcile this.

I don't want images from my webcam viewable, yet I kind of have a weird fascination with what may be out there for me to sit and watch, without anyone knowing I am doing so. Hypocritical?

Interestingly enough, there is an exhibit at the Tate Modern next year exploring these themes... "Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera"
You can read the press release put out last month here
I absolutely MUST get down to London for that one.

Interesting that they are not just including the obvious, the CCTV footage for example. Nan Goldin's work is an obvious and exciting choice, but Cartier-Bresson? Candid photography? I guess that could be classed as voyeuristic too, in a way, it would certain come under some shade of a 'surveillance' definition.

I enjoy candid photography. Some people criticize, citing lack of respect, privacy... maybe because it's another form of voyeurism, and people just aren't comfortable with the idea of it.