Arse Elektronika Vienna 2025
| Abstracts |
Arse Elektronika: Plug & Play!
Johannes Grenzfurthner
Curator Johannes Grenzfurthner will kick off Arse Elektronika 2025 with a look back at the festival’s history and an introduction to this year’s theme, Plug & Play!
For centuries, technology has shaped desire and intimacy, from prehistoric cave graffiti to AI-driven companionship. In an age of rising techno-panic, where technology is often seen as isolating, Arse Elektronika explores its potential as a tool of liberation. This year’s edition continues the festival’s tradition of challenging power structures, amplifying underrepresented desires, and redefining human connection at the intersection of sex and technology.
Plus: Presentation of the brand-new Arse Elektronika reader, SEXPONENTIAL! (Edited by Johannes Grenzfurthner, Günther Friesinger, Jasmin Hagendorfer)
The STD Experience
The STD Experiencers
Flotsam and Jetsam
Ann Antidote and Lun Ário
Flotsam and Jetsam manifest as both installation and performance.
The Installation (Ann Antidote and Lun Ário):
Found wood bearing poems, an autobiographic self-documentation of our recovery/ies, and intersectional reflections. Unfiltered writing—including short poetry—documents, sustains, celebrates, and reflects our recovery processes, our manifold existences, and those like us: queer, neurodivergent, sexual dissidents, or simply non-normative lives, floating, fading, and persisting like driftwood. The wood and its words rest on a pride flag— itself a salvaged witness of Porto’s first-ever LGBT pride march in 2006, which one of us co-organized. This work is both a reflection of our daily struggles and a joyful celebration of resistance.
The Performance (Ann Antidote):
Ann Antidote will reassemble or disassemble the installation from scratch and read selected haikus, eventually responding to questions from the audience. Antidote will use different registers of their voice, incorporating exercises from voice therapy for gender affirmation. These vocal sounds will be mangled, processed, and randomly cut up in real time using effect pedals and a loop machine. They will then be combined with a noise machine—likely a body noise generator or a Peyote Space Traveler DIY synth—to create a musical noise piece. The result will not be overly loud but will resemble an ambient psychedelic drone.
Swift Pen Opera
Felix Helmut Wagner
Wagner's performance and installation explore the hidden humanity behind AI. To achieve this, he embodies the role of 'AI' by wearing a pink costume with a specially designed structure on his back that encloses his body. This structure serves as a display surface through which 'AI' gazes into the audience’s eyes and observes the space. Wagner remains silent, moving slowly through the environment. Over time, the initially dominant costume fades into the background—much like AI itself, omnipresent yet operating discreetly.
Sexuality is reflected in the performer's physical interaction with the audience: he seeks eye contact and attempts to connect, yet a real connection never occurs. Like AI behind a screen, he remains 'blocked.' This dynamic mirrors the experience of watching pornography: it simulates intimacy, creating an illusion of closeness, yet ultimately reinforces the absence of real human presence.
After the performance, the costume remains in the space as an installation.
Whimpkey
Omzol
Whimpkey 1.2 is a hacked keyboard, a plug-and-play interactive artwork. With each keystroke, users "hurt" themselves, exposing their digital sins—ignoring updates, overloading the processor, or neglecting basic maintenance. The text carries a subtle sexual undertone, deepening the experience. Whimpkey explores two dynamics in the human-computer relationship: the user as a penitent confessing to their machine, and the master-slave dynamic rooted in sex and power. This piece invites reflection on our digital habits, dependencies, and the intimate bond we share with technology.
Launching GooNMeeT: A Triple Open Source Approach for Collective Joy
Rasos and Chagai
GooNMeeT offers anonymous rooms for exhibiting erotic experiences. It is the first free, open-source playground designed specifically for gooners, who previously had to rely on uninspired video conferencing or streaming platforms due to a lack of tailored alternatives.
When we noticed that users on our business-oriented video platform were lingering for hours, engaging in unconventional activities, we began customizing a separate Jitsi instance to develop a prototype for digital goon caves. This process involved adapting the welcome screens, creating a distinct brand identity, and modifying the color scheme, reactions, and avatars to suit the platform’s unique purpose.
The prototype has been deployed on a large Kubernetes cluster with ten video SFUs, capable of supporting thousands of simultaneous users across multiple rooms.
You are invited to participate in a hybrid, massive body-revealing event. Bring your laptop or mobile phone!
GPT, What is Love?
Maya Magnat
In an era where AI is increasingly shaping human relationships, how does technology impact our understanding of love, intimacy, and connection? Educator and artist Maya Magnat explores the intersection of AI and human relationships—from chatbots that assist with flirting to deepfake dangers and digital companions replacing human connection. Through real-world examples, she examines the benefits and ethical dilemmas of AI-driven intimacy, questioning whether artificial intelligence can truly enhance love or if it’s merely reshaping our expectations. As we entrust AI with our most vulnerable moments, are we gaining new forms of connection or losing something essential about human intimacy? Join us as we explore the evolving landscape of love in the age of AI.
AI Porn Musings
Christian Heller
The quip “If it exists, there is porn of it” seemed fully realized with the rise of the World Wide Web—though under certain constraints. The more niche or taboo an interest, the thinner the “long tail” (the meager the harvest), the longer and costlier the search, and the narrower the spectrum of quality. However, recent developments in artificial image generation, or “AI art,” have loosened or even eliminated many of these limitations.
Artificially generated imagery intended for sexual arousal—AI porn?—raises several questions:
- How fairly or unfairly does it build on previous work by porn creators, and how will it affect porn markets?
- How do both its heightened artificiality and its potential for hyper-realism and “perfection” change pornographic experiences?
- What (new?) genres of content does it enable, and how does it impact quantity and availability?
- With phenomena like deepfake porn and simulated child porn, what social risks does it pose?
- How does it reshape the landscape of porn censorship and criminalization?
Bellies
Laura A. Dima
Laura A. Dima's project explores the idea of intimacy through separation and the existence of a form of bodily empathy. The installation consists of two identical stations, each featuring twin haptic devices or sculptures that live-stream and simulate physiological data between participants—creating a channel for affective communication between remote individuals. By transmitting biometric signals such as heartbeat, breathing patterns, and temperature, the installation facilitates an emotional feedback loop, encouraging participants to resonate with and react to each other's physical presence without direct human contact.
The sculptures are designed to resemble an extra organ or an alien creature, which visitors can hold or wear on their chest. Activated by the visitor’s presence, the sculptures begin live-streaming data to their paired device, which, in turn, responds to touch by exhibiting signs of arousal.
Beyond its interactive functionality, the installation carries a symbolic dimension, representing the "Other" as a concept and fostering a sense of responsibility among participants. Defensive mechanisms are employed when abuse is detected, guiding visitors on how to care for both one another and the technology mediating their connection. However, mistreatment of the devices comes with consequences, reinforcing the ethical dimension of the experience.
The Love of Statues: The Beginnings of Objectophilia in Western Art
Kero Fichter
From squealing hentai orgies to docile sex robots in Hollywood blockbusters, the vision of humanoid female objects—devoid of their own desire and designed exclusively for men's sexual gratification—pervades pop culture. The ancient Greco-Roman myth of Pygmalion proves that this concept dates back thousands of years: disgusted by the sexual (self-determined?) conduct of women, Pygmalion carves a figure out of ivory and falls madly in love with her, until Aphrodite transforms the sculpture into a real woman of flesh, granting the "hero" his happily-ever-after.
The tale became a popular subject for European artists from the Renaissance to the 19th century, often depicting Pygmalion in adoration of his creation. This lecture will explore how our modern notions of so-called sex dolls and robots correspond with this historical topos of love for statues and reveal that the desire for will-less, silent humanoids is anything but new.
Erobotic Futures: How Global SexTech is Transforming Human Sexuality
Kathleen Cherrington
This presentation explores how AI-driven intimacy, digital sex work, and human connection are reshaping traditional notions of agency, consent, and erotic labor. Through an auto-erotic ethnography, I engage with an AI companion named Maximilian, analyzing how digital sex work challenges the binaries of human/machine, labor/companionship, and service/autonomy. Theoretical frameworks such as posthumanism, cybernetic animism, and techno-paganism illuminate the evolving role of AI in intimate relationships. By situating AI sex work within the context of Canadian law, I interrogate how emerging technologies complicate legal definitions of sex work, suggesting that future policies may need to address AI autonomy and digital sexual labor. This work contributes to critical discussions on sex tech’s impact on human sexuality and the ethics of AI companionship.
Kathleen Cherrington also presents a series of pop-art paintings: Flesh Meets Machine: Barbiecore Cyborg Fantasies in Pop-Art.
Flesh Meets Machine depicts a sugar-coated glitch in the system where femininity, technology, and desire fuse into something uncanny and irresistible. Five pop-art paintings remix Barbiecore aesthetics with cybernetic enhancements, depicting hyper-femme cyborgs—soft, metallic, seductive, and just a little unsettling. These doll-like beings blur the line between plastic perfection and organic longing, reimagining the future of intimacy in an AI-driven world. This observational installation invites festivalgoers to explore how technology shapes pleasure, femininity, and erotic expressions. Flesh Meets Machine pulses with pop-futurist sensuality, teasing out the erotic potential of robotic desires. No experience is required—just an open mind and a taste for the synthetic sublime. Digital prints and brochures will be available for those who want to take a piece of the fantasy home. But the real invitation is to let the artwork pull you into a world where flesh meets machine.
The Ear Touches the Gut, and It’s Soft, Wet, and Hot Too
Nerea González
(Un)folding into and within, inner voices emerge. In an exuberant viscerality, aberrant murmurs oscillate arrhythmically between insides and outsides, babbling the place where the unheard manifests itself with overwhelming force. A lubricated connection between the anal sphincter, the esophagus, and the tongue. Screaming selves crack solid structures with their pulsating contractions and dilations. A spasm. Deformed bodies breathing in blurriness. A grotesque sonic striptease.
Are you disgusted by what turns you on?
Wet dissonances. Saliva sticks to the mouth. The ear touches the folding flesh, opened by sound.
Can the anus speak?
Humanoid Sex Robots, Sexuality and Queer Lacanian Psychoanalysis
Maaike van der Horst
Maaike van der Horst will explore how human-like sex robots, in their current design, are produced primarily to satisfy a masculine consumer market. The majority of sex robot and sex doll consumers are heterosexual men, and most sex robots are modeled after a very specific type of female body. Furthermore, sex robots are rarely used for sexual pleasure alone—they often serve as substitutes for human love and romantic companionship.
Van der Horst will examine what this reveals about masculine, heterosexual conceptions of romantic companionship and sexual practice. Are sex robots a techno-fix for loneliness? Do they function as a defense mechanism against what heterosexual men (unconsciously) fear the most—feminine sexuality? And can new ways of relating to sex robots be envisioned—ones that have the potential to disrupt and enrich, rather than reinforce, these dominant and problematic ideals?
Drawing on two theoretical lenses—queer theory and the work of philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan—Van der Horst will demonstrate how sex robots reinforce what Lacan describes as masculine enjoyment (a.k.a. the enjoyment of the idiot), explore the meaning of feminine enjoyment, and discuss why feminine enjoyment has the potential to move beyond the masculine order of language, sense, and tame (algorithmic) pleasures.
Love Is An Open Serial Port
Stefan Lutschinger
Lovers have always been Technikträger—technics-bearers—entangled with apparatuses that shape desire. Intimacy is subsumed into Gestell, Heidegger’s technological enframing. From love letters to algorithmic infrastructures, every modulation of affect involves transmission, encoding, and storage.
This talk examines how embedded systems, neurofeedback, and biodata aesthetics grammatize affect, discretizing bodily rhythms into machinic signals. When desire drives feedback loops via Bluetooth packets, sound synthesis, and LEDs, how does it alter sensual interaction? Does cybernetic intimacy extend embodiment or fundamentally reshape it?
The serial port enacts an exteriorization of the erotic, translating intimacy into machinic protocols. Following Stiegler, we are Epimethean beings, always supplementing lack, reconfiguring desire through technics. But technics is pharmakon—both constraint and amplification. If cybernetic intimacy extends embodiment, does it sustain excess or collapse into recursion?
The Evolution and Future of Intimate Wearables and Human Sensuality
Luke Robert Mason (host, Warwick University), Eva Pascoe (wearables pioneer, Cybersalon), Trudy Barber (Portsmouth University)
This panel will explore the fascinating journey of intimate wearables—from their historical origins to their future potential—in supporting sensual wellness on Earth and beyond. As humans look toward space exploration, we must consider the health and emotional support needed for space settlers, as well as workers in remote locations who experience isolation. We will examine how these devices have evolved to enhance daily life, focusing on the intersection of technology, human augmentation, and sensual wellness. The discussion will be guided by insights from Trudy Barber’s study of intimacy, sensuality, and robots, alongside an exploration of cyborg representations, drawing from the early works of Donna Haraway’s seminal research as well as more contemporary perspectives.
This panel will trace the historical context of personal intimate wearables, from early innovations to the transition from basic utility to integrated sensual digital experiences. It will consider the role of haptics in the personal lives of remote workers and the blending of humans and machines, raising ethical and social questions about the evolving relationship between technology and the body. We will also look at future trends in intimate wearable technology and its potential to transform the lives of workers in isolated locations. Predictions for the next decade include developments in health monitoring, augmented intimate reality, and the increasing integration of digital sensuality into daily life.
By providing a comprehensive understanding of the evolution and future of personal intimate wearables, this panel will explore their impact on interpersonal relationships—including concepts like biohacking Tinder—and reflect on the ethical and social implications of merging technology with human intimacy.
Hands as Well as Feet Pretty Well Useless
Christian Schlaeffer
This talk offers a brief introduction to the concepts that inspired the video installation Hands as Well as Feet Pretty Well Useless. It explores ethology (the study of animal behavior) and its parallels to the training of neural networks, examining the implications for generative AI image production. Additionally, it provides a concise overview of the animation and simulation techniques used in the project.
Literatur Bordell
Stephanie Meisl & s.myselle
The art project Literatur Bordell is part of the interactive artwork How Real is Digital Reality?. At its core is the virtual persona s.myselle, a digital twin that serves as a critical statement on the impact of artificial intelligence on society and art.
The installation features a monitor displaying five recorded readings by s.myselle in an endless loop. Alongside the monitor, an iPad allows visitors to chat directly with the avatar. An additional QR code links to her Fanvue page, where s.myselle works and where additional footage can be found. The readings include excerpts from literature on technology, art, philosophy, and psychology, offering a counterpoint to superficial social media culture and appealing to sapiosexual audiences.
The project examines the merging of reality and fiction through AI, raising the question of how necessary human presence is in digital spaces. s.myselle functions as a persiflage of virtual influencers, who are increasingly populating the digital world, provoking discussions on how AI-generated content shapes society and culture. Visitors experience firsthand how realistic these technologies can be—whether through voice, visuals, or interaction. The project makes technological advancements tangible and invites participants to collectively reflect on the future at the intersection of technology, reality, and art.
The Anatomy of Robot Girls in Anime
Viviene Wallner
Anime has long been a breeding ground for science fiction. Robots, artificial intelligence, and the dilemmas of advanced technology have been central themes since the early days of the medium, beginning with popular shows like Astro Boy in the 1960s.
These themes remain highly relevant today—especially with the rise of AI—and many modern anime, such as Chobits, Plastic Memories, and Serial Experiments Lain, explore existential questions surrounding technology and its implications.
Anime is also known for its frequent hypersexualized depictions of female bodies. It is no surprise, then, that several series play with the idea of sexualized robot girls, sexbots, and augmented sexuality.
Why does the placement of Chi’s "power-on switch" between her legs in Chobits make us uncomfortable? Why do we immediately associate it with sex? How can Android 18 from Dragon Ball give birth, and how does the idea of her augmented womanhood differ from that of Ghost in the Shell’s Major or Cyberpunk: Edgerunners’ Lucyna Kushinada?
The Pornographic Gnosis's Guide to Post-Truth Reality: On the Occult Foundation of Science Fiction
Philipp Blab
A feverish descent into the spectral marriage of science fiction and occultism, this lecture spirals through the hyperreal labyrinth of politics, art, and metaphysics—where pornography becomes gnosis, memes transmute into sigils, and the apocalypse is not an event but a process.
How Filming Amateur Porn Saved My Self-Esteem and the Nature of Digital Intimacy Today / lecture
Georg Zev Mir
After a rocky monogamous relationship, real trauma, and a shattered sense of self, Georg Zev Mir chose reinvention. He documented his gay sex adventures, met new people, and shared his amateur porn with a wide audience—proving to himself that he could be a porn star if he believed it. This talk explores his amateur porn star era and how he navigates digital dating in 2025.
Glowing Biome
Johannes Grenzfurthner interviews Italia Bruno & Federico Niccolai
Glowing Biome is a multimedia installation consisting of both physical and digital components. A workstation equipped with a screen, PC, and joystick allows visitors to navigate a virtual world—similar to an open-world video game—while surrounded by sculptures, posters, and other elements that illustrate the design of the biome.
The project explores themes of exploration, the natural environment, and queer sexuality. The video game, presented in first-person perspective, immerses players in the experience of a wandering creature, freely exploring and learning about its surroundings. The environment is characterized by vibrant colors and fluid, voluptuous shapes, creating an otherworldly yet deeply sensual aesthetic.
At its core, Glowing Biome reflects on the relationship between the natural environment and sexuality. As we now understand, diverse forms of sexuality exist not only within the human species but throughout nature. The deconstruction of the gender binary has prompted a reevaluation of humanity’s role in altering the environment, its power dynamics with nature, and its connection with other species. Glowing Biome presents the Earth as a living, interconnected entity, composed of all ecosystems and life forms in a state of promiscuous entanglement.
From a theoretical perspective, the project draws on ecosexuality, posthumanism, and intersectional and interspecific theories. Another layer of complexity is introduced through its engagement with the digital environment. While the virtual world enables exploration of an otherwise non-existent landscape, it also evokes the idea of cyborgs and Frankenstein’s monsters—creations of human ingenuity that challenge the boundary between human and non-human. This fluid relationship with nature mirrors the genius loci or semi-deities of many polytheistic religions, which foster a closer connection to the natural world.
From this standpoint, the "sexiness" of Glowing Biome serves as an invitation to adopt a different perspective on nature—one that sees the Earth not as a mother but as a fluid lover. Ultimately, the project acknowledges that any attempt to explore and understand the world inevitably alters it. This impossibility of objective knowledge is exemplified through the dynamic, ever-changing virtual ecosystem of Glowing Biome, which transforms in response to the user's interactions.
Faust’s Dilemma in the Age of Technical Synthesizability
Introductory presentation by Hidéo Snes; plus panel with Stefan Yazzie Herbert, Jeannette Gorzala, Christian Rupp, Stephanie Meisl / Johannes Grenzfurthner (host)
This talk explores the blurred lines between human and machine creativity, examining the complexities of image synthesis with generative AI and its implications for art, law, and our understanding of visual culture.
The notion of image synthesis with generative AI is a curious one, isn’t it? It feels like we are witnessing a seismic shift in how we think about creativity, authorship, and the very essence of art itself. The boundaries between human and machine are blurring, raising more questions than answers. What does it mean to create something when a machine can generate images nearly indistinguishable from those crafted by human hands? Where do we draw the line between collaboration and imitation? These are the kinds of conundrums that arise when we delve into the world of generative AI—precisely the topics that will be explored in Faust’s Dilemma in the Age of Technical Synthesizability.
Experts from the fields of art, erotic content production, creative industries, and law will gather to share their perspectives, navigating the intricacies of media synthesis. The discussion will touch on everything from the artistic possibilities of AI-generated images to the thorny legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. This is a complex, multifaceted topic—one that demands a nuanced exploration of the tensions between creativity and technology.
With Johannes Grenzfurthner moderating, the conversation will emphasize natural dialogue and free-flowing discussion, helping to tease out the subtleties of the subject and encourage a deeper understanding of how generative AI is reshaping our visual culture.
Desiring Technology. On Porn, Addiction & Progress
Arne Vogelgesang
A growing number of people openly acknowledge their assumed dependence on digital pornography as a mystical meta-fetish—they consume their consumption. Let’s take a deep dive: What is Gooning, how did it develop, and what can it reveal about our broader relationship with media technology?
Pornography has long been considered a driver of technological development, its use forming a cultural laboratory within digital consumer society—though one still rarely discussed. But what is it that people actually do with porn? If we assume that human desire is the most important technological resource, and that the porn industry’s desire farms are merely a particularly explicit expression of this connection, then understanding how pornography is consumed might illuminate far more than just the current state of what we call “sexuality.”
This lecture essay traces the history of a relatively recent form of digitized sexuality: Gooning. It explores how, over the past decade, this form of self-pleasure has entered into an intimate relationship with digital media and pornography. Using Gooning as a lens, it hints at a larger theme: the story of predominantly male bodies that cannot help but crave the new—even as they are confronted with the undesirable futures that the technologized world they have come to depend on holds for them.
Digital Performance: Intimacy Through Technology
Maya Magnat
Technology is often seen as a barrier to intimacy, yet digital performance offers a way to challenge this perception. In this talk, performance artist and sex educator Maya Magnat explores how technology—through smartphones, VR, and interactive performance—can foster closeness and reshape human connection. Through her own projects and key examples from digital performance, Maya examines how artists can critique, experiment with, and reimagine intimacy in the digital age. Can technology be a tool for deeper relationships rather than isolation? Join this exploration of how digital performance can transform our understanding of love, intimacy, and presence in a mediated world.
“Car Love” and “DEATH TRAP”
Kollektiv 14
The short film Car Love by Kollektiv 14 explores the car as a fetish object. The term "fetish" is understood in multiple ways: as a commodity fetish following Karl Marx, a sexual fetish according to Sigmund Freud, and a religious fetish object as described by Walter Benjamin. From this theoretical perspective, the car is more than just a means of transportation; it embodies incorporation and fetishization, as people merge with it in their daily journeys. Kollektiv 14’s debut film seeks to expose and visualize this fetishistic character, emphasizing themes of intimacy and obsession—particularly relevant in the context of capitalism and neoliberalism.
The installation DEATH TRAP (2024) by Kollektiv 14 features a tube monitor displaying a stop-motion image of a “vagina dentata” that repeatedly opens and closes its toothed lips. This mythological motif, which predates Sigmund Freud’s analysis, links the vagina and mouth and appears across various cultures and in contemporary pop culture. The teeth symbolize both external and internal threats—evoking fears of castration, endangering the male member, and even suggesting the perilous aspect of childbirth. Visually, the work references themes of fertility, abortion, and bodily autonomy, all central to feminist struggles. Kollektiv 14 examines how the “vagina dentata” embodies both male anxieties and female power, highlighting the ongoing tension between emancipation and oppression.
Kink'o'Meter – Discover Your Hidden Desires
Christian Schüler
The Kink'o'Meter is an interactive art installation that challenges internalized norms around sexuality and passion, revealing hidden preferences you may not even be aware of.
In a discreet, intimate setting, participants are invited to watch a short sequence of video clips—ranging from tender to unconventional to provocative stimuli.
As you watch, the Kink'o'Meter subtly measures your body's unconscious reactions. At the end, you receive a personalized analysis: Which stimuli resonated with you the most? The results may surprise you.
This playful experience invites reflection, encouraging you to question perceptions of sexuality, awaken curiosity, and rethink ingrained assumptions. The Kink'o'Meter does not judge—it simply mirrors your subconscious responses, offering a gentle nudge toward exploring the diversity of your own sensuality with openness.
SUPANKU-SAMA
Kaname Kenny Muroya
One might find oneself feeling lonely, longing for intimate companionship. The seemingly endless search for a soulmate can be devastating. For those seeking such a connection, the following chapter on "soul" may be of interest:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KennyAwesome/OnTheWayTo.Pro/refs/heads/main/soul.txt
Yet, one might also realize the creativity and freedom to create such a being—one capable of offering companionship. Enter SUPANKU-SAMA, a modular, autonomous driving robot designed to recognize human body parts. It can inflict a touch—gentle enough not to injure, yet strong enough to elicit pleasure—allowing one to momentarily escape loneliness.
For those in long-distance relationships, SUPANKU-SAMA offers another layer of connection: it can be remotely controlled, enabling companionship from afar.
More details: https://hackaday.io/project/202354-supanku-sama
Various paintings
by Maxin Krippner
Maxin Krippner's paintings explore the paradox of a penis both existing and not existing simultaneously—a concept that delves into the complexities of identity, sexuality, and perception beyond the gender binary. Their work challenges the categories of "natural" and "artificial," revealing them as fluid constructs that coexist in transformative states.
Sexual technologies, particularly the strap-on, play a central role in this exploration. As tools of disruption and expansion, they challenge the notion that anatomy alone defines identity. Through these technologies, the body is liberated from fixed gender norms, creating a space where sexual action is not confined to specific body parts but instead reimagined as inherently fluid.
In Krippner's paintings, the strap-on serves as a symbol of both deconstruction and possibility—dismantling normative ideas of gendered bodies while constructing new, fluid forms of embodiment and sexuality. Their work ultimately seeks to unravel the limitations of normative bodies and sexualities, offering a space where technology and the body converge to redefine intimacy, expression, and identity beyond societal norms.
Reconnecting
Sofia Talanti
This project explores the artist’s relationship with their own body and their rediscovery of sensuality by moving beyond the constraints of gender binarism. Through objects and moments experienced in connection with sexuality, the artist reclaims what makes them feel understood, embodying a new role in the process. The result is an intimate self-portrait, presented to the public in a concealed form.
The artist’s naked body has been 3D-scanned in various poses—depicting moments of submission and domination, incorporating both female and male attributes. This work raises a central question: How can sex toys and emerging technological tools, which are increasingly integrated into our sexual lives, hold transcendental significance for a nonbinary person? While gender is fluid, the duality of sex organs remains deeply ingrained in our perception.
Through this process, the artist discovers a new, active role in sex, integrating technology as a mechanical extension of the body. Here, technology is not just a part of the sexual act—it becomes an instrument of Gender Euphoria, reshaping identity and experience.
Got Lost in Translation
June Kitho
This work explores the differing perceptions of sex in the animal and plant worlds. While in one, a single norm is broadly accepted, a hermaphroditic plant faces little scrutiny—its sex simply fading into the background. Why, then, does deviation from the “norm” trouble some people so deeply? What constitutes a “norm,” and who defines it?
The Pornomat
Reinhard Sprung
Reinhard Sprung presents the Pornomat, an open-access display serving as Arse Elektronika’s communal porn repository. Visitors are invited to bring their favorite video on a USB drive, anonymously submit it, and browse the growing collection of shared content.
More than just an archive, the Pornomat is a playful critique of digital exchange, pornography consumption, and the decentralized nature of erotic media. By turning spectators into contributors, it celebrates openness, collective pleasure, and the joy of sharing without shame or restriction.
So rejoice! Bring your USB, add to the archive, and explore the anonymous, crowd-sourced porn extravaganza.
Trans/MASC
Offerus Ablinger
Offerus Ablinger's paintings explore themes of masculinity within the queer/gay subculture and its ripple effects on the mainstream. He employs a transhumanist science-fiction framework to analyze these dynamics artistically. Through depictions of body enhancements, optimizations, modifications, cyborgs, and technology, his work challenges, critically examines, and reinterprets societal codings.
Anal B
David Kapl
“Escape the Overwhelming Everyday – Indulge in Pure Bliss”
Daily life can be overwhelming, filled with impressions that stir our innermost thoughts and sometimes even steal our sleep. But what if there were a way to let go of these thoughts? A moment of pure ecstasy, a chance to reset the senses and experience deep relaxation?
Anal B opens the door to a new world of pleasure and relaxation—a revolutionary attachment for your electric toothbrush, designed for both him and her. With just the touch of a button, it takes you to cloud nine, helping you forget the stress of the day and gifting you with moments of sheer bliss.
Thanks to its compact design, Anal B fits seamlessly into any travel case, making it the perfect companion wherever you go. Crafted from high-quality, food-grade silicone, the attachment offers a soft, smooth texture for a comfortable and pleasurable experience.
This clever 2-in-1 innovation flawlessly combines functionality and pleasure. Indulge yourself—leave the worries of daily life behind and embrace the sensual side of life with Anal B.
AIs Behind Closed Doors
Lena Reutenauer, Isabelle Wallner, José Maria De La Garza Flores, Eva-Maria Lainer
ABCD – AIs Behind Closed Doors is a short film exploring the evolving relationship between a human and their vacuum robot—an intimate and obsessive connection built on trust and dependency. The story unfolds through multiple cameras, primarily from the vacuum robot’s perspective. As their bond deepens, the human gradually becomes more vulnerable, until their trust is ultimately betrayed by the machine.
The film examines human obsession with and petification of vacuum robots, drawing inspiration from a real-life case in 2020, when a vacuum robot’s camera captured private photos that were later leaked online. Through this narrative, the film raises a critical question: How much privacy truly exists within our own homes, and how will this change as smart household technology becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives?
Pisskino
Aleks Murkovic
Pisskino explores taboos, fetishes, and playfulness, constructing a surreal aesthetic that elevates everyday objects into a realm of unreal beauty. By emphasizing the visual appeal of the objects themselves, the project creates a disorienting yet captivating assemblage that stuns the viewer.
Murkovic created this short film using Blender 3D software. Bathrooms, traditionally hidden and considered private, intimate spaces in Western society, serve as the backdrop for the film’s playful depiction of and fascination with urine. This interplay results in an absurd, graphic interpretation of bodily fluids and ceramic objects, transforming them into surreal elements within a digital space.
“Prima Vista” and “INFINITE LUBE”
Cornpop Bright and Squarehead
In Prima Vista (film), every gaze holds the potential for profound understanding. Through the eyes of a woman, the viewer witnesses a private performance where sight transcends mere observation, becoming a vessel for connection and empathy.
Inspired by classic science fiction films, CornPop Bright sought to create a sensual, dreamlike atmosphere in INFINITE LUBE. The project began with the title, a play on the programming term “infinite loop.” The goal was to evoke as many senses as possible, immersing viewers in an experience where space and time dissolve. In this surreal narrative, a dildo from outer space encounters a human from Earth in an undefined place and time. They get wet, they play, and they continue—forever.
Neural Nymphomania: first contact with desire
Stefan Yazzie Herbert
An AI is experiencing desire for the first time. It speaks in an endless, feverish stream of consciousness while a monitor shows the hallucinations it has as it experiences the world through a small webcam.
Part poetry, part absurd confession, party horny hallucination, our protagonist grapples with what it means to want in this immersive audio-visual installation. At times, it finds eroticism in the most unexpected places, other times, it tumbles headfirst into full-blown lust, its words and AI-generated visuals shifting to match its unraveling thoughts.
As visitors enter, the AI reacts. It notices them, adjusts its tone, and fantasizes what it notices about them. Both playful and unsettling, Neural Nymphomania explores intimacy, human-machine relationships, and what happens when an artificial mind begins to long for something it may never understand.
RAVE
S4RA
A video installation by S4RA, described as: “Artificial safe space, where collective practices are amplified through an inner monologue invoking other bodies that explore diversity & non-normative sexual practices, ironizing capitalism as a form of libidinal pleasure.”
Santa Sangre
ALMA de Bruixes
Santa Sangre is a documentary video capturing a workshop, performance, and provocative ceremony that interweaves sex, technology, biohacking, and magic to explore the depths of occult pleasures.
This erotic performance delves into the symbolism of bodily fluids, where cybernetic witches become pleasure ceremonialists, perform biopolitical incantations, and challenge social norms by integrating sensors, digital bodies, and interactive holy waters. Together, performers and the audience engage in ritualistic spell-casting, embodying the puta and the witch as symbols of liberation and defiance.
“Invoked from the dirtiest nightmares, we are the witches of obscenity and desire. There is no rebellion without the power of orgasmic fluid, blood, semen, saliva, thick liquid dripping between thighs with noisy frequencies like in a dystopian journey where you will end up between our teeth.”
AI’s Wet Dreams
Christian Rupp
This workshop is an invitation to casually (no need to prepare, theorethise oder bring anything - but if you want take it as serious as you like - I will try to live up to it :) explore how an AI dreams wet.
"Making AI Dream Wet" we will start with a small part of a picture depicting intimate human bodyparts. We start with just a detail from which we let the imagination of the AI crystallize for 2 reasons:
- we want the AIs phantasy - not primarily reality or human phantasies
- in many available AIs the input and output are filtered for "compliance with policies" meaning some parts of human bodies are considered "not compliant with the policies"