LOADING... Arse Elektronika 2011! September 29 thru October 2 in San Francisco!
Latest information and updates
Arse Elektronika vs. Singularity Summit?
Dan Massey of Venus Plus X sent us a very interesting article he wrote.
I thought you might enjoy my recent socialist-capitalist fusion blog "comparing and contrasting" Arse Elektronika and Singularity Summit. Can us wild futurists ever work together? Will the rich invest in erototech?
The presentations were extremely wide-ranging, and showed the
creativity possible as a new age of sexual freedom emerges. Each one
incrementally stretched the group or "hive" mind in real time.
Among the dozen+ offerings, we heard from Kitty Stryker in her frank talk, "Sex Work, Disability, and Stigma" and Maymay presented "A Class Analysis of Social Status in the BDSM Scene” (also available on YouTube). David Fine, who vaguely describes himself as "a Sex Robot from the 25th century" spending his
time in our era guiding technology in useful, or at least interesting,
directions, brought us his reimagining of the Mindflex kids' toy (available on Amazon) which he modified to activate a vibrator, simple and perhaps the first attempt we’ve seen to apply an EEG headset to a sex toy; The future possibilities are endless.
As much as I consider myself a geek, I am pretty isolated generally from
the geeky 'verse. A lot of my friends are certainly dorky/nerdy/geeky,
in a multitude of ways, but we're usually meeting at altsex or Burner
spaces, not hacker ones! I guess I'm a little intimidated by the
techspeak, which I'm not a native speaker of.
Well, this last weekend was spent surrounded by smart sexy geeks at Arse Elektronika, a sex, tech, class and culture conference thrown by monochrom
that goes on every year in San Francisco. I had two talks to give, one
called "TLC: Sex Work, Disability, and Stigma", and one with Maggie Mayhem
called "Pervertables: A Hands-on Workshop in Being a DIY Deviant". I
didn't get to see all the rest of the talks as my spoons were kind of
few and far between this weekend, but I wanted to at least give a bit of
a writeup of what I did!
San Francisco Bay Guardian on Arse Elektronika 2011
The event raises tough issues like whether having the lifestyle that
allows one to enjoy kink is a luxury, class struggle among perverts, and
the fossil footprint of a technologically-assisted orgasm. There will
be talks and workshops, inventions and performance – go to question the
meanings of desire.
On the heels of Folsom Street Fair, Arse Elektronika, an annual conference on sex, technology and culture arrives in San Francisco from September 29-October 2.
Curious to know how sex and technology intersect? Arse Elektronika is certain to titillate. This year's theme, "screw the system" looks to explore questions such as:
"What are the labor conditions of non-Western workers who make most of the world's sex toys? What's the environmental footprint of a technologically assisted orgasm? How does the criminalization or stigma of sex tech production harm the communities in which it is produced? What's the product life-cycle and planning horizon of sex tech? What are the barriers to entry for sex tech production? How important is intellectual property to sex tech, and how is it enforced?"
The event kicks off its opening night with the Prixxx Arse award for the best in sex machines, orgasmotrons and teledildonics on Thursday, September 29th at Chez Poulet. The event is organized by the Austrian art collective, monochrom.
Talks at the event include such topics as "Making a Mind Controlled Dildo" and hands on workshops for the DIY crowd.
While Arse Elektronika isn't going to please all, I can't imagine a city better suited for such an event. For the curious, you can check out the full schedule on Arse Elektronika's website.
Arse Elektronika 2011 / Opening Night and Prixxx Arse 2011
SCREW THE SYSTEM!
Opening Night and Prixxx Arse 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
7:00 PM
Location: Chez Poulet (3359 Cesar Chavez, San Francisco)
An unobjectionable award for sex machines, orgasmotrons and teledildonics A gala hosted by monochrom's Johannes Grenzfurthner
Featuring many guests stars, like Aaron Muszalski, Jonathan Mann and the PSIgasm team!
The winners will be honored with the "Golden Kleene" (*)
(*)
There was a young man named Kleene
Who invented a fucking machine.
Concave or convex,
It fit either sex,
And was remarkably easy to clean!
(limerick, attributed to John von Neumann)
Our gala will be a dignified occasion -- and so we invite you to dress up properly. Surprise us with Socialist Sex Superheroes and Superheroines... and maybe win a "Golden Kleene" yourself!
New Arse Elektronika Anthology! "Of Intercourse and Intracourse – Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere"
We will present the newest Arse Elektronika Anthology at Arse Elektronika 2011.
Of Intercourse and Intracourse – Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere
We may not forget that mankind is a sexual and toolusing species. And that's why monochrom's conferene Arse Elektronika deals with sex, technology and the future. As bio-hacking, sexually enhanced bodies, genetic utopias and plethora of gender have long been the focus of literature, science fiction and, increasingly, pornography, this anthology sees us explore the possibilities that fictional and authentic bodies have to offer.
Our world is already way more bizarre than our ancestors could have ever imagined. But it may not be bizarre enough. "Bizarre enough for what?" – you might ask. Bizarre enough to subvert the heterosexist matrix that is underlying our world and that we should hack and overcome for some quite pressing reasons within the next century.
Don't you think, replicants?
Edited by Johannes Grenzfurthner, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry. Published by RE/Search Publications (San Francisco) in cooperation with monochrom.
Featuring essays and projects byEleanor Saitta, R.U. Sirius, Jack Sargeant, Annalee Newitz, Katrien Jacobs, Christian Heller, Bonni Rambatan, Kyle Machulis, Saul Albert, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Violet Blue, Carol Queen, Douglas Spink, Rose White, Rainer Prohaska, Thomas Ballhausen, Uncle Abdul, Elle Mehrmand (Echolalia Azalee), Micha Cárdenas (Azdel Slade), Ani Niow, Monika Kribusz, Noah Weinstein, Randy Sarafan, Allen Stein, Kim De Vries, Pepper Mint, Robert Glashuettnencr, Jonathon Keats.
Presentation at Arse Elektronika 2011 opening ceremony on September 29, 2011 @ Chez Poulet in San Francisco.
PSIgasm explores the science of the climax @ Arse Elektronika 2011
The PSIgasm Project, a Bay Area sex-positive research project, wants to jump back into the fun stuff and track down just what exactly the the big "o" does to the human body.
It may look like a super powerful dildo, but the PSIgasm is actually a fancy scienticfic device that records changes in body temperature, heat capacity, heart rate, blood volume, moisture, and movement; all signs pointing to orgasm. The smart instrument of pleasure was concieved in 2010 by Ned Mayhem, a PhD candidate in experimental physics at UC Berkeley and his lover Maggie Mayhem, an HIV prevention specialist, both of whom are sex positive activists, queer porn performers. The aim of their project is simple: to get people off and simaltaeously monitor the physiological responses correlated with arousal and orgasm. You can almost hear this city full of tech geeks pleading, "more, more!"
[...]
For the time being, he's working the projects presentation for Arse Elektronika, which may or may not include a live demonstration. Now that sounds like exciting science!
Body Heat: sexy iPhone application is now available on the App Store
Body Heat is a beautiful and intuitive interface developed to control OhMiBod's personal massager, delivering infinite vibration intensity and pattern control to anyone who uses it. Using the multitouch screen on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can visually control a connected body massager, available from OhMiBod. Body Heat is vibration your way!
The device was designed and developed by Heather Kelley and a small team of experts (Damien DiFede and Amanda Williams), and prototypes of the software were on display at monochrom's Arse Elektronika 2010 in Hong Kong and San Francisco. The OhMiBod team was so impressed by the product that they pretty much bought it and Heather is now collaborating with them to develop updated versions of the app.
Now you can buy the app and attach an OhMiBod personal massager to your iPhone and enjoy a completely new way to control your massager.
Arse Elektronika 2011. September 29-October 2 in San Francisco, USA.
monochrom's Conference on sex, technology, class, and culture.
The remarkable diversity of human behavior across cultures and classes also extends to sex and technology. Most discussions in this area tend to make certain assumptions about the culture, class, and race of the participants. Technologically represented sex tends to be ableist and heterocentric. Who gets left out of this, what effects does this have, and what would it look like to include them?
Is there working class, middle class and upper class porn? How does the commercial sex industry reproduce and enforce racial, gender, and class exploitation and dominance? How do people use sex and sexual technology to transgress or change social status? How can DIY porn and sex tech counter the social injustices reproduced by the commercial sex industry? Does gay porn make use of the class, race, and power tropes found in heterosexual pornography, and if so, how?
Is kinkiness a luxury? What does kink from different social classes look like? Can economic realities poison the power dynamics of a D/S relationship? What are the demographics of people admitted to hospitals with weird objects up their asses? Does activity in a swinger or BDSM scene act as bridging social capital? Are there class dynamics at work in the feminist debate over porn?
How and why do governments intervene in sexualities? When do governments shape or use sexual desire, both implicitly and explicitly? Can sex tech challenge the future of biopolitics and what Michel Foucault calls "biopower" (the subjugation of bodies and the control of populations by modern states)?
What are the labor conditions of non-Western workers who make most of the world's sex toys? What's the environmental footprint of a technologically assisted orgasm? How does the criminalization or stigma of sex tech production harm the communities in which it is produced? What's the product life-cycle and planning horizon of sex tech? What are the barriers to entry for sex tech production? How important is intellectual property to sex tech, and how is it enforced?
What does production, regulation, distribution, and consumption of sex tech look like outside of North America, Western Europe, and Japan? How do state-sponsored religions or religious states interact with these issues? How do majority Muslim cultures differ from one another and from non-Muslim cultures on these issues? What's the intersection of sex tourism and sex tech? Is Japan's pornographic dominance in the Asian market an exception to the Korean wave? How does a country's pornography (or lack thereof) reflect its culture? Who consumes racist pornography?
How do the class and cultural impacts of differential access to shifting reproductive technologies like IVF, surrogacy (especially international surrogates), egg and sperm donors, birth control, and abortions affect the ways people have sex and construct relationships? Do these technologies or their social deployment enforce heteronormativity? How could the sex tech industry positively impact control and awareness of STIs?
What's the intersection of sex tech and hospitals or hospice care? Where are the sex toys for the elderly? Where are the sex toys for prisoners? What are the pornography surfing habits of homeless people in libraries? Can technology meaningfully contribute to solutions for sexual social problems like rape? Should the government allow or require masturbation aids in prisons to reduce prison rape? Should your health insurance be paying for your vibrator? How do your sex toys hurt you? What are the health risks of using everyday objects as sex toys when you can't afford the good stuff?
Who buys sex tech? Is sex technology a luxury? Does the demand elasticity for sex tech vary across subcultures? By age, sexual orientation, race, etc? How much does the average lesbian couple spend on sex toys? What are the substitutes employed to or within sex tech if it's unaffordable or unavailable? Is consumption of sex tech correlated with any other social significant behaviors or consumptions, positive or negative? How do distribution methods affect who consumes sex tech? How will the DIY movement change the sex tech market? Will we be able to print our on sex toys on rapid prototyping machines?
