Ed Flynn

Jason Marks made a great point on his twitter today. That point was - Chat Roulette is being invaded by artists and more specifically performers. This notion is supported by an article today in Fast Company and the video in my last post about Chat Roulette.

If you think about it this really isn't that surprising considering artists are generally known for moving into socially impoverished communities and setting up camp. It gives them a few specific advantages in developing their craft and expressing their ideas.

The First is cost - In urban terms rent is low because it is usually deemed an undesirable location. This lets the artist work in larger spaces for less. Chat Roulette is pretty cost advantageous as it is free and barriers to the audience is nearly non-existent.

The Second is the lack of constraint - The advantage of a socially impoverished location in terms of cultural constraints is that there are not as many. The artist has has more creative room as they are less burdened with standard cultural paradigms and rules. They can operate in the shadows undetected and master their craft or they can perform out in the open with less fear of stigmatization. It also for a lot of artists provides creative fuel as they often feel like they are getting the chance to tap into some of the more raw qualities of the human condition. In terms of Chat Roulette performers can let their freak flag fly as they are largely surrounded by people much weirder or perverse than themselves. It is also fertile grounds for exploring the human condition in terms of how people use and view the internet in which Chat Roulette is a social commentary unto itself.

The Third is the opportunity to rise above and challenge the social construct in which they have placed themselves. It resonates with the idea of turning the ugly beautiful or simply celebrating the truth within ugliness. I think some of these early manifestations of performance art on Chat Roulette fall into the idea of artists trying to "flip the script" and redefine this early public stigma of Chat Roulette as being only for chronic masturbators.

Now there are far more long term effects that this artistic gentrification can have on a location both positive and negative to which I have no desire to debate at this point.
Getting back to the larger point though of artist's and performers invading Myspace... I mean Chat Roulette.
This early indication that artists are trying to co-opt this space is not unlike what happened to MySpace. We all know that after the initial population explosion on MySpace it quickly became a haven for pedophiles. While this group gained most of the negative attention at the same time musicians where rapidly turning the platform into a socially impact-full promotion tool. Once the dust had settled and the community was somewhat cleaned up the musicians had taken such a foothold that it gave Myspace the ability to keep itself from completely crumbling into total tech and cultural obscurity as the general population shifted to FaceBook. Could Chat Roulette be on the same path be it on a much shorter timeline. Could this turn into a platform for emerging performers to test, gauge and refine their craft.
Would you rather log-in to see who could make you laugh the hardest rather than who can make you throw up in your mouth the quickest?

Watch the Nurses perform on Chat Roulette

 

UPDATES:

Ben Folds brings chat roulette on stage.

 

Check out this post Mashable today which showcases this video. ( be it a gag or an artistic/social commentary )

 

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With all the talk of (and personally witnessing) the seedy underbelly of the internet as personified by Chat Roulette, it's refreshing to see some true creativity (clean creativity no less) on the otherwise "creepy gross drifter" of social media.

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