Arse Elektronika is an annual conference organized by the Austrian arts/philosophy collective monochrom, focused on sex and technology. Speakers at past conferences have included Mark Dery, Violet Blue, Annalee Newitz, Rudy Rucker, Carol Queen, and Richard Kadrey with demonstrations by Kyle Machulis of Slashdong, Heather Kelley, Allen Stein of Thrillhammer and other engineers of Fucking Machines.
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The first Arse Elekronika Conference was held in 2007[1] to answer questions about the impact of sex on technological innovation and adoption. New technologies are quick to appeal to pornography consumers, and thus these customers represent a profitable market segment for the suppliers of new products and services.
The 2008 conference, subtitled "Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep: Critical Perspectives on Sex and Science Fiction,"[2] focused on sex and technology as seen through the futurist lens of science fiction, as well as depictions of science fiction in pornography.
The 2009 conference, "Of Intercourse and Intracourse"[3] dealt with bodies and the modification thereof, including wetware, gene therapy, biotechnology, and body modification. Talks also speculated on the social impacts of these technologies particularly the implications on heteronormativity if biological sex becomes easily changeable.
The 2010 conference, "Space Racy," dealt with issues of space, both in an architectural and aeronautical sense. Topics included the possibility of sex in outer space, the gendered and/or sexualized nature nature of built spaces, interspecies romance in video games, and an interactive installation in which participants could have sex while buried in a surveillant coffin.[4]
The 2011 conference, "Screw the System," dealt with sex, technology, class politics, and culture.
In April 2010 the first Arse Elektronika exhibition 'Techno(sexual) Bodies' was presented at Videotage in the city of Hong Kong. It was curated by Johannes Grenzfurthner and Isaac Leung.
An important part of Arse Elektronika is presenting sex tech related art performances.
In 2007 the organizers presented and demoed Fuckzilla (a fucking machine).
In 2010 monochrom created the "Six Feet Under Club". Couples could volunteer to be buried together in a casket beneath the ground. In a press release they explained that the space they occupy is "extremely private and intimate". The coffin "is a reminder of the social norm of exclusive pair bonding 'till death do us part'." However, this intimate scene was corrupted by the presence of a night vision webcam which projects the scene on to an outside wall. The scenario kept the intimacy of a sexual moment intact while moving the private act into public space. monochrom's performance can be seen as an absurd parody of pornographic cinema or an examination of the high value placed on sexual privacy.
pr0nnovation? Pornography and Technological Innovation (Arse Elektronika Anthology #1)
Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep? Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction (Arse Elektronika Anthology #2)
Of Intercourse and Intracourse – Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere (Arse Elektronika Anthology #3)