Fucking polygons, fucking pixels: On procedural representations of sex / Arse Elektronika 2012
Paolo Pedercini of Molleindustria on procedural representations of sex in videogames.
Talk given at Arse Elektronika 2012.
Arse Elektronika (not to be confused with the similarly sounding, slightly more established new media art festival
in Linz) is the most important conference investigating the
intersection of sex and technology. The past six editions revolved
around themes like porn as innovation driver, sexuality in science
fiction or body enhancements. This year the emphasis was on games and the three day festival included performances, workshops, and an
eclectic mix of lectures: from the challenges of simulating sexual
intercourse in Nordic LARPs to the dating strategies among volunteers in
disaster zones, from the physics of vibrators and sex machines to the
auto-ethnography of masturbation…
My talk simply dealt with the procedural representation of sex in
videogames. I publish the presentation here, along with most of the
images and videos I screened. The text is a transcript quickly adjusted
to the written form so forgive me for the colloquial style, the
repetitions and the wonky grammar.
Summary
What is the role of sex in the functionalist worlds of videogames? How
come that modeling intercourses through cybernetic systems seems only to
produce hilarious, problematic and delightfully reductionist outcomes?
In this gonzo survey of playable coitus, I descend from the prudish
polish of AAA games to the subappreciated subterranean genre of
interactive pornography (so you don’t have to) and then re-emerge to
envision alternative design approaches for healthy, sex-positive,
post-pornographic, radical games.
Link
The Digital and Analogue Subversion of monochrom: Günther Friesinger @ furtherfield
Once, when I was living in Moscow
before 2011, I was informed about monochrom by recommendation of my
friend: the activist initiatives of this art group from Vienna seemed
fascinating due to its art-tech philosophy and it put a smile on my face
due to its pop attitude. Later on in Linz Günther Friesinger, one of
the creators of monochrom, gave a lecture to Media Art Histories
students of the Donau Universität, which inspired me to arrange an
interview with him. The first question I asked was about establishing
monochrom. Günther explained that “monochrom came into being in 1993 as a
fanzine for cyberculture, science, theory, cultural studies and the
archeology of pop culture in every-day life. Its collage format is
reminiscent of both the early DIY fanzines of the punk and new wave
underground and the art books of figures such as Dieter Roth, Martin
Kippenberger and others. For a while now, monochrom have been venturing
further than publishing alone, and have been responsibly influencing
people’s minds via film production, performances and festivals. If you
are in Vienna in autumn by chance, have a look at the paraflows festival - one of the main projects run by monochrom.
Link
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