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.