“There’s something compelling about real life”: Technologies of security and acceleration on Chaturbate

Abstract

Adult webcam platforms, or sexcams , can be considered platforms for the laboring of affect: machines that exploit, accelerate, and capitalize on it. As expected, the primary source of value is the broadcast of sexual performances. However, this article argues, the extraction of value on sexcam platforms relies as well on some of the early established conventions of webcamming , such as the perception of real-time and real-life. The location and quality of the shows are relevant for these reasons, along with the various sorts of personal interactions between the audience and performers. While some of these interactions resemble personal or human ones, the characteristics and scale of exchange that the platform enables, with thousands of viewers connected at the same time demanding the attention of one performer, require new technologies of assistance that involve humans and software—and some entanglements in between. Those technologies are located in the tension of generating value by accelerating exchanges while preserving the attributes that give them value in the first place. This article identifies some of the actors involved and investigates how they contribute to this double articulation.