Ana Voog
Encyclopedia
Ana Clara Voog is a musician
, visual artist, performance artist and writer
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
. Voog is the former front woman of The Blue Up?, a pop rock
band from the Minneapolis area. On August 22, 1997 Voog began anacam, the second webcam
(after JenniCam) that lifecast
s, i.e., broadcasts twenty-four hours a day live from a home.
project named anacam.
Besides a view into Ana Voog's personal life, anacam also incorporated performance art
and visual experimentation. Daily activities such as cooking dinner, vacuuming, and hosting visitors fill out the non-interactive periods on anacam. Other activities on the webcam range from chatting with cam-watchers, playing music, and ornate performance pieces involving household items.
While sex and nudity played only a small in what could be seen on cam, Ms. Voog gained considerable attention, and criticism, for the portrayal of nudity
and sexual activity, including masturbation
and intercourse
, on her live webcam.
Voog distinguished the racier elements of her project from pornography
, stating that the "site isn't about sex, but sexuality and sensuality". In contrast with one-time collaborator isabellacam, which is self-described as “a completely original take on female produced erotic content”, Voog views sexuality on anacam as a part of her life.
From the beginning of anacam, Voog accompanied the webcam with a blog
in a section of her site, analog and in her LiveJournal
, started in 1999. Voog transcribed her earlier, hand-written journals to her online blog. In addition, she publishes poetry
, stream-of-consciousness work, along with other writings. Voog also produced many varieties of art, including paintings, drawings, video, and photographs. A number of public archives of Voog's work have fallen into serious disrepair, although a representative selection has been published in J.D. Casten's book on Voog, Dreaming On Stage. Art installations by Voog have been hosted by the New York
Museum of Modern Art
, and in the Walker Art Center
and the Weisman Art Museum
.
In May 2002, Voog began to freeform crochet
hats. Each is unique, and she sells them via her website.
On Voog's online work, Jorn Barger
, who is credited with coining the word weblog, states:
A number of newspapers and magazines have written about Voog and anacam, including Newsweek
, USA Today
, Playboy
, and Yahoo! Internet Life
.
Television appearances include Hard Copy, Vibe, A&E
, Net Cafe, and E!
. She also appeared on an episode of the early "video blog" by Jennifer Ringley of Jennicam.
A documentary, Camgirls, which has been in post-production for years, is still scheduled to be completed, according to Adakin Productions.
In August 2009, Voog turned off her webcam on the 12th anniversary of the site. In total, anacam broadcasted live, 24/7, for twelve years.
On July 30, 2007, she and her husband had their first child, Lili Zuzu Voog. The child was conceived and birthed on cam. A second child, Violet Luna, was born on 8 February 2009. Ana's third child, a son named Henry Rose, died on May 14, 2010, at 36 weeks gestation, from complications resulting from Trisomy 13.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, visual artist, performance artist and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. Voog is the former front woman of The Blue Up?, a pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
band from the Minneapolis area. On August 22, 1997 Voog began anacam, the second webcam
Webcam
A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...
(after JenniCam) that lifecast
Lifecasting (video stream)
Lifecasting is a continual broadcast of events in a person's life through digital media. Typically, lifecasting is transmitted through the medium of the Internet and can involve wearable technology...
s, i.e., broadcasts twenty-four hours a day live from a home.
Early life
Ana Voog was born as Rachel Olson on April 18, 1966 to a Lutheran Minister father. She later changed her name to Ana Clara Voog. Although it was never legally changed, Voog has used it as her primary name. Voog attended high school in Stillwater, Minnesota.anacam
On 22 August 1997, Voog began a webcamWebcam
A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...
project named anacam.
Besides a view into Ana Voog's personal life, anacam also incorporated performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and visual experimentation. Daily activities such as cooking dinner, vacuuming, and hosting visitors fill out the non-interactive periods on anacam. Other activities on the webcam range from chatting with cam-watchers, playing music, and ornate performance pieces involving household items.
While sex and nudity played only a small in what could be seen on cam, Ms. Voog gained considerable attention, and criticism, for the portrayal of nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
and sexual activity, including masturbation
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
and intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
, on her live webcam.
Voog distinguished the racier elements of her project from pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
, stating that the "site isn't about sex, but sexuality and sensuality". In contrast with one-time collaborator isabellacam, which is self-described as “a completely original take on female produced erotic content”, Voog views sexuality on anacam as a part of her life.
From the beginning of anacam, Voog accompanied the webcam with a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
in a section of her site, analog and in her LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
, started in 1999. Voog transcribed her earlier, hand-written journals to her online blog. In addition, she publishes poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, stream-of-consciousness work, along with other writings. Voog also produced many varieties of art, including paintings, drawings, video, and photographs. A number of public archives of Voog's work have fallen into serious disrepair, although a representative selection has been published in J.D. Casten's book on Voog, Dreaming On Stage. Art installations by Voog have been hosted by the New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, and in the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
and the Weisman Art Museum
Weisman Art Museum
The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum is an art museum located on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. A teaching museum for the university since 1934, the museum is named for Frederick R. Weisman, and was designed by the renowned architect Frank Gehry...
.
In May 2002, Voog began to freeform crochet
Crochet
Crochet is a process of creating fabric from yarn, thread, or other material strands using a crochet hook. The word is derived from the French word "crochet", meaning hook. Hooks can be made of materials such as metals, woods or plastic and are commercially manufactured as well as produced by...
hats. Each is unique, and she sells them via her website.
On Voog's online work, Jorn Barger
Jorn Barger
Jorn Barger is an American blogger, best known as editor of Robot Wisdom, an influential early weblog. Barger coined the term weblog to describe the process of "logging the web" as he surfed...
, who is credited with coining the word weblog, states:
- She was trying to live her life 100 per cent openly, which I thought was a righteous ideal. I wanted to emulate it in my own way by logging everything I found interesting, whether art or politics or silliness or even occasionally good porn.
A number of newspapers and magazines have written about Voog and anacam, including Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, and Yahoo! Internet Life
Yahoo! Internet Life
Yahoo! Internet Life was a monthly magazine published by Ziff-Davis, which licensed the name from Yahoo!, the well-known web portal and search engine website. It was created and launched by G. Barry Golson, the former executive editor of Playboy and TV Guide.It dealt with the emerging Internet and...
.
Television appearances include Hard Copy, Vibe, A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
, Net Cafe, and E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
. She also appeared on an episode of the early "video blog" by Jennifer Ringley of Jennicam.
A documentary, Camgirls, which has been in post-production for years, is still scheduled to be completed, according to Adakin Productions.
In August 2009, Voog turned off her webcam on the 12th anniversary of the site. In total, anacam broadcasted live, 24/7, for twelve years.
Personal life
After over 10 years of debate, at the age of 30, Ana Voog had had saline breast implants inserted into her chest to increase their size.On July 30, 2007, she and her husband had their first child, Lili Zuzu Voog. The child was conceived and birthed on cam. A second child, Violet Luna, was born on 8 February 2009. Ana's third child, a son named Henry Rose, died on May 14, 2010, at 36 weeks gestation, from complications resulting from Trisomy 13.
Recordings by The Blue Up?
- "We are the Garden" b/w "It's My Life" (first single, 1986: vinyl)
- Now (EP 1987: vinyl; German version, 1988)
- "Everything Is" (on Kaleidoscope — Exploding Underground Compilation, 1988: vinyl)
- "Were You a Friend?" (on Let's Talk About Boys — German compilation 1988: vinyl)
- Introducing Sorrow (1989; was to be released by Midnight Music London, but they went bankrupt. Was then released in mp3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format in ana2.com, May 1999) - Cake and Eat It (1992: CD and cassette)
- "Pink Turns to Blue" (on Du Huskers — Hüsker DüHüsker DüHüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....
tribute album, 1993: vinyl, CD, and cassette) - "Breathe You Out" (1995: CD single)
- "Breathe You Out" (on Soundbites — compilation, 1995: cassette)
- Spool Forka Dish (1995: promo cassette)
- Spool Forka Dish (1995)
- "Frovarp" (on Minnesota Modern Rock — compilation, 1995)
Recordings by Ana Voog (solo)
- Mother Anorexia (demo) (on Radioactive — compilation, 1996)
- Telepathic You & Please God (on Radioactive — compilation, 1997)
- Please God (1997: promo CD)
- Anavoog.com (promo CD)
- Four remixes (on Hollywood Remixes, 1998: vinyl)
- AnaVoog.com (1998)