By Kevin Johnson
This site is the webcam home of the Dreesmans family: André,
Annelies , Gino, and Sergio. A Dutch family of born-again Christians,
they live in Boskoop, Netherlands. The site is very straightforward
as you are presented with the simple title "Dreesmans Place",
a shot from the webcam and a few links on the bottom. The site is
rather dry on the surface and seems to have very little to offer.
The cam isn't even live. There are actually two cameras and you have
the option of viewing the latest still from either one. I spent more
than twenty minutes on the site and the pictures didn't change. But
the content of the pictures makes the site interesting nonetheless.
The two stills I saw were of the wife and children at the dinner table,
and the husband at his computer (interestingly enough looking at his
own site). While the picture of the guy at his computer was nothing
more than a cool effect of him looking at his computer looking at
his computer, etc, the camera at the dinner table reveals how inside
these people's lives they are willing to let others. Dinner is usually
an intimate moment in a family and many people would not feel comfortable
letting the whole world in. But the fact that it is a still shot shows
that they still won't let you all the way into their lives. All one
can get from the site is that at the time on the picture they were
having dinner. There is no chance to see the actual family dynamic
- just the one they choose to show you.
And that is what is really powerful about webcams. People have the
ability to portray themselves in any manner they feel. Viewers can
feel like they are making a connection through what they see but that
connection could be to a false image. This site is not all that impressive
outside of the fact that it raises questions concerning how we connect
to what we see and who has control over what we see.