sexualinteractions.org

Visual Eroticism: Teledildonics as Porn++ (part 1 of 3)

This is the first of a three-part series adapted from my talk at Arse Elektronika: "Sex and Computation in a Material World"

I struggled a lot with the decision of how personal to make this. I've always had a hard time with the boundary between personal and professional passions, and I've always tried to be reflective and forthright about where I'm coming from when I make things or write things. I suspect that, when discussing and designing for sex, it's especially difficult to draw those lines, because our own relationship with sex, our specific turn-ons and fascinations, can seem so very particular, and yet so important to how we think about, design, make and market sexual technologies.

In this feature I'm focusing on what happened when I got a Sinulator. How commercially available teledildonics platforms seem to be operating on more of a porn-viewing model than an interactive sex-between-two-people model. I want to discuss some of the less-than-appealing aspects of bringing a really visually-based erotic model into the bedroom, at least for me and I think a lot of women. Audacia Ray has pointed out that other than sex workers, women are not exactly, um, jumping on the remote-controlled sex bandwagon, and it's probably worth asking ourselves why this is. (more...)

by metamanda
10.25.2007

consuming bodies

We Make Money Not Art recently reviewed Consuming Bodies: Sex and Contemporary Japanese Art:

A precious characteristic of the essays is that its authors do not isolate art and analyse or comment on it for its own sake but they also take into account the historical and material circumstances which have conditioned the emergence of contemporary Japanese art. besides the account of the imaging of sex and consumerism moves beyond the glamour, exotic and amusing aspects of Japanese behaviours and explores with much finesse the balance between the private and public aspects of sexual activities as found in media, comics, departments stores, etc.

Looks interesting, beautiful, sexy. I want. (more...)

by metamanda
11.03.2007

i'm mclovin' it

Joe Kugelmass writes about sexuality in the age of advertising with his typical insight, connecting the dots between the popularity of rule-based approaches to sexual and romantic interaction, work and leisure, the culture of advertisement and commodification, irony, authenticity, sweetness, and time. My favorite sentence: "Thus the nostalgia for adolescence is as desperate as it is superior, because what adolescence really represents is a period when there was enough time, and enough unknowns, that romances felt less arranged. In absence of that real slow time, we are back to simulation and the montage promises of the commercial." It's great when I can have research crushes on people who are also my friends. (more...)

by metamanda
11.03.2007

Naked On The Internet

A little while ago I picked up Audacia Ray's new book Naked On The Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration.

Naked on the Internet is just right -- smart and insightful without lapsing overmuch into lingo that isn't understandable to a reasonably intelligent lay person. This makes it an easy and quick read, without being fluff. She's accountable to the ways that her own experiences have shaped her point of view, without turning the book into an exercise in personal navel gazing. On the whole, the book required several different balancing acts from the author, and she actually managed to do it. (more...)

by metamanda
10.15.2007

Arse Elektronika, digested

Several days later, coverage of Arse Elektronika is all over the internets. I don't have good notes on all the excellent talks featured there, but Autumn Tyr-Salvia does. (Links to her very thorough individual entries at the bottom.)

Violet Blue gave a really insightful talk on sexual privacy online.

Aaron Muszalski spoke about the prevalence of digital visual effects and their present and future role in the production of pornography.

And some lists of other articles to check out, and some of the porn that really caught my attention. (more...)

by metamanda
10.13.2007

Arse Elektronika

Arse Elektronika is happening, right this minute, at the Kink.com Porn Palace.

Friday night's demos included a fucking machines demo, featuring an audience member getting it on with fuckzilla and fuckzall (which appears to be a dildofied sawzall), a musical performance played using balloons, pressure sensors and some kegels muscles, and a recipe for a sort of unappetizing cum-like drink. (more...)

by metamanda
10.06.2007