(9’ x 5’ x 3.5’) – Looping video projection (14 minute duration), acrylic fur, fabric, mirror, wire and wood

In this video installation, viewers can capture video images of animals on a furry, handheld animal-shaped screen. The videos were collected from a wide variety of live animal webcams over the course of a year and compiled into a continuously streaming loop. I was inspired by the essay, "Why Look at Animals?" by John Berger, in which he considers how human-animal relations have changed since the 19th century.  Berger notes the breakdown of "every tradition which has previously mediated between man and nature". In my installation, I consider a new tradition of mediation that did not exist when the essay was written in 1980. One in which we point our webcams at animals and then use our internet browsers to watch them. Perhaps it is because they look good on camera and merely provide a spectacle for us, but it could also be that animals matter to us and we want to know what they are doing when they are not with us.

Looking for animals on live webcams is like going on a desk chair safari. The animals are not always in the camera view, so most of the time you have to spend some time watching and revisiting the web cams to see very much. I spent untold hours over the course of a year recording video from webcams and I developed a fondness for many of the animals. Here are a few of my favorite (and still live) animal cams:

• The Brooklyn Bunny - a beautiful Dwarf Hotot house bunny named Roebling. I designed a Superstar webcam animal button for him.
• Columbus Peregrine Falcon Nest - Located in downtown Columbus and brought to you by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife
• Flossy the pig - she lives a peaceful life of sleeping and eating on a college farm in England. She is too famous to eat. I designed a Superstar webcam animal button for her.
• Toledo Zoo Hippo Cam - view these beauties underwater, sometimes you can see the reflections of visitors in the glass, watching the hippos.
• Dogcaster - Nikki the dog has a Superstar Webcam animal button
• Jason's Interactive Fishcam - you can open and close the mouth of a web-enabled toy aligator in the tank
• San Diego Zoo's Panda Cam - high tech multiple camera system that follows the Panda action. I designed a Superstar Webcam animal button for Bai Yun, who is seen on camera 4, 5, 6 and 7.
• Fuzzybutt Ferrets - this one has sound, so you can hear the ferret baby noises
• Border Collies - puppies
• Kitty Cam by Mythic Bells - Tiny Bear is my fav cat in this Persian cattery, I designed for her a Superstar Webcam animal button
• Aquarium cams - 4 research aquariums at Cal Poly Pomona
• Sheep, Chickens and Pigs - they hang out in the barn together on a farm in the Netherlands
• Eagle Nest Cam - my favorite one is offline, so I've replaced it with this new one
• Dog grooming window in Japan
• Monkey Centre - in Japan
• Bug cam - usually ladybugs
• Shamu Cam - see him swimming underwater at the SeaWorld
• Wimsey Bulldogs - usually lots of puppies on camera here
• Roach camera - at the University of South Carolina, not a video cam, but the still cam images are superb
• Doggy playroom - at the Bone Adventure Dog Daycare
• Bunnies for Babies - a new one, super cute, hopefully it stays live

Many more animal webcams can be found on UStream animals, Camstream pet animals and Justin.tv animals