About a week ago I was introduced to a thing called Chat Roulette.  It’s a lot like skype only, instead of calling someone you know, you are randomly hooked up to any of the 30,00 other people “playing”.  Here ensues a frantic whizz through different web-cams all over the world. If you get someone you are unhappy with, simply press f9 and it will pick another random camera.

This very simple idea is the brain-child of a 17 year old Russian programmer called Andrey Ternovskiy. He created it so that him and his friends could be randomly paired off with each other. Now thousands of people use this site to make friends, pull pranks, show each other their genitals and more.

The earliest recording of this website, that I could find was in November 09, so this is an extremely new platform. The little advertising on the site pays enough for the running costs, but the creator says:

“Advertising on Chatroulette is kept to a minimum, because there are a lot of sites full of advertisements, which distract you from what you want to do on those sites. I also love minimalism. That’s why I have put only four links on the bottom as advertisements.”

To hear more from the horses mouth come this way!

At the moment this site is getting a lot of blog coverage, some are calling it “the most innovative thing on the web since myspace”.

Having now been on chat roulette several time, it paints a confusing but mesmerising picture of of a digitally connected world. We stare through out camera’s into tiny pockets of the universe, where more often than not, we find other beings staring back. The simple gesture of copying someones facial expression is enough to make you feel as though the planets are aligning. Conversing like this is like Close Encounter of the Third Kind.

Other times you find that all too often you meet an incredibly obscene amount of content; (and I advise anyone who is easily offended to think twice before entering the site) whether it is cleverly superimposed film footage of bestial sex-acts, or a group of guys flipping the bird and shouting sexist, racist, homophobic abuse, or most likely it will be someone masturbating, asking you to “show your tits!”

If you can forgive it these sins, there is much to find inspiration and enjoyment from: I have had amazing conversations with people from all over the world, had a guy draw my portrait, a personal acoustic concert and seen some amazing pranks that make me find new enjoyment and thanks that I live in a world like this. The serendipitous and transient shared moments make the experience feel like a real happening. Could this be pointing to the future of digital performance?

Here are some highlights recently:

Some peeps having a Burka Party

These guy were from Germany and could literally play anything you asked...they did a beautiful rendition of "The Bear Necessities"

I got this girl to make a combined face from both of ours.

what the duck!

This girl from Philadelphia Pennsylvania also shared her face with me.

peek a boo

I'm in Sweeney Todd!

Twilight!

But this is only the beginning. Think back to the first time you went on facebook, or google for that matter. We can barely imagine how this idea will evolve. Will it overtake other social networking sites? What will be the next great prank on here?

Maybe next year’s accidental team will have their own accidental chat: a specifically designated  web space for performance and art to be created and aired to a global audience…?

This blog was written by me, James Cawson, the web designer. I look forward to seeing more exciting performance ideas on chat roulette!