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Dear List, On a more positive and much less anonymous note, I'm at Rewire tweeting #Rewire2011: And re sex and hacking, Valentina Montero is showing sex toy hacking workshops for women (Sexual Bricolaje) - DEFINITELY the best first presentation choice! And a good combination of practice and theory ... Yours, Beryl On 28 Sep 2011, at 08:57, Simon Biggs wrote: > Re: *The Death of the Media Art Theorist: A Call to Arms * > > That's hilarious - and more than a little true! Except the diaspora to Australia seems to have gone into reverse (perhaps the over-valuation of the Oz-dollar and cessation of support for new media by the Oz Council are having their effect?). > > Today's Paraflows post on Spectre about Arse Electronica might provide a new model? > > best > > Simon > > Arse Elektronika 2011: SCREW THE SYSTEM > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > September 29-October 2 in San Francisco, USA. > > http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > monochrom's Conference on sex, technology, class, and culture. > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > The remarkable diversity of human behavior across cultures and > classes also extends to sex and technology. Most discussions in this > area tend to make certain assumptions about the culture, class, and > race of the participants. Technologically represented sex tends to be > ableist and heterocentric. Who gets left out of this, what effects > does this have, and what would it look like to include them? > > Is there working class, middle class and upper class porn? How does > the commercial sex industry reproduce and enforce racial, gender, and > class exploitation and dominance? How do people use sex and sexual > technology to transgress or change social status? How can DIY porn > and sex tech counter the social injustices reproduced by the > commercial sex industry? Does gay porn make use of the class, race, > and power tropes found in heterosexual pornography, and if so, how? > > Is kinkiness a luxury? What does kink from different social classes > look like? Can economic realities poison the power dynamics of a D/S > relationship? What are the demographics of people admitted to > hospitals with weird objects up their asses? Does activity in a > swinger or BDSM scene act as bridging social capital? Are there class > dynamics at work in the feminist debate over porn? > > How and why do governments intervene in sexualities? When do > governments shape or use sexual desire, both implicitly and > explicitly? Can sex tech challenge the future of biopolitics and what > Michel Foucault calls "biopower" (the subjugation of bodies and the > control of populations by modern states)? > > What are the labor conditions of non-Western workers who make most of > the world's sex toys? What's the environmental footprint of a > technologically assisted orgasm? How does the criminalization or > stigma of sex tech production harm the communities in which it is > produced? What's the product life-cycle and planning horizon of sex > tech? What are the barriers to entry for sex tech production? How > important is intellectual property to sex tech, and how is it enforced? > > What does production, regulation, distribution, and consumption of > sex tech look like outside of North America, Western Europe, and > Japan? How do state-sponsored religions or religious states interact > with these issues? How do majority Muslim cultures differ from one > another and from non-Muslim cultures on these issues? What's the > intersection of sex tourism and sex tech? Is Japan's pornographic > dominance in the Asian market an exception to the Korean wave? How > does a country's pornography (or lack thereof) reflect its culture? > Who consumes racist pornography? > > How do the class and cultural impacts of differential access to > shifting reproductive technologies like IVF, surrogacy (especially > international surrogates), egg and sperm donors, birth control, and > abortions affect the ways people have sex and construct > relationships? Do these technologies or their social deployment > enforce heteronormativity? How could the sex tech industry positively > impact control and awareness of STIs? > > What's the intersection of sex tech and hospitals or hospice care? > Where are the sex toys for the elderly? Where are the sex toys for > prisoners? What are the pornography surfing habits of homeless people > in libraries? Can technology meaningfully contribute to solutions for > sexual social problems like rape? Should the government allow or > require masturbation aids in prisons to reduce prison rape? Should > your health insurance be paying for your vibrator? How do your sex > toys hurt you? What are the health risks of using everyday objects as > sex toys when you can't afford the good stuff? > > Who buys sex tech? Is sex technology a luxury? Does the demand > elasticity for sex tech vary across subcultures? By age, sexual > orientation, race, etc? How much does the average lesbian couple > spend on sex toys? What are the substitutes employed to or within sex > tech if it's unaffordable or unavailable? Is consumption of sex tech > correlated with any other social significant behaviors or > consumptions, positive or negative? How do distribution methods > affect who consumes sex tech? How will the DIY movement change the > sex tech market? Will we be able to print our on sex toys on rapid > prototyping machines? > > Who can afford to challenge sex tech? > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Arse Elektronika 2011: Schedule > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > SCREW THE SYSTEM! > Opening Night and Prixxx Arse 2011 > > Thursday, September 29, 2011 > 7:00 PM > Location: Chez Poulet (3359 Cesar Chavez, San Francisco) > > An unobjectionable award for sex machines, orgasmotrons and teledildonics > A gala hosted by monochrom's Johannes Grenzfurthner > Featuring many guests stars, like Aaron Muszalski, Jonathan Mann and > the PSIgasm team! > Our gala will be a dignified occasion -- and so we invite you to > dress up properly. Surprise us with Socialist Sex Superheroes and > Superheroines... and maybe win a "Golden Kleene" yourself! > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > DISCOURSIVE AND PERFORMATIVE APPROACHES > > Friday, September 30, 2011 > 7:00 PM > Location: Center for Sex and Culture (1349 Mission btw 9th and 10th, > San Franciso) > > PSIgasm project > By Ned Mayhem / Maggie Mayhem > 7 PM > > Venereal Disease Helps the Enemy: Biopower at War > Adam Flynn > 8 PM > > Proverted Pastimes: Orgasm and Gameplay > Heather Kelley > 9 PM > > It's Wankie Time! > A DIY performance by Johannes Grenzfurthner/monochrom - featuring Rose White > 9:30 PM > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > CONFERENCE FOR BRAINY PERVS > > Saturday, October 1, 2011 > 12:00 noon > Location: Center for Sex and Culture (1349 Mission btw 9th and 10th, > San Franciso) > > Experiential Technologies for the Performance of Socio-Sexual Identities > Ella Saitta > 12:30 pm > > Phallic Home Economics > Griffin Boyce > 1:30 PM > > Witchhunt 2010 > Douglas B Spink > 2:30 PM > > (Break / 3:30 pm - 4 pm) > > Sex Work, Disability, and Stigma > Kitty Stryker > 4 PM > > Hacking Health: Queer Machines, Ideal Bodies and What Medicine Can > Learn From Sex/Tech > Laura Duncan > 5 PM > > Re-Caste-ing Alternative Sexuality: A Class Analysis of Social Status > in the BDSM Scene > Maymay > 6 PM > > What does it mean to be a technosexual? > Gopinaath Kannabiran > 7 PM > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > ARSE NIGHT > > Saturday, October 1, 2011 > 8:30 PM > Start at Center for Sex and Culture (1349 Mission btw 9th and 10th, > San Franciso) -- followed by monochrom's UNICOCK AND UNICUNT that > will end at Noisebridge (2169 Mission Street, San Francisco) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > > SCREW-IT-YOURSELF > Workshops and Unconference > > Sunday, October 2, 2011 > 1 PM thru 8 PM > Location: Noisebridge (2169 Mission Street, San Francisco) > > Screw the System of Objectification. Objectification is a Lossy > Compression of Humanity > Rich Gibson > 1 PM > > Pervertables: A Hands-on Workshop in Being a DIY Deviant > Kitty Stryker and Maggie Mayhem > 1:45 PM > > Postgeographic Sexuality > Willow Brugh > 2:30 PM > > Make your own Mind Controlled Dildo > David Fine > 3:15 PM > > Make your own Pressure Measuring Dildo Redux > Ned Mayhem > 4:00 PM > > CSS Citizen Sexual Science > Ned Mayhem, Rich Gibson, others > 4:45 PM > > Measurement Electronics for Hobbyists > Ned Mayhem > 5:30 PM > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/ > > > > On 28 Sep 2011, at 00:59, Anonymous Anonymous wrote: > >> *The Death of the Media Art Theorist: A Call to Arms * >> >> *Part 1 * >> >> >> >> One feels a pang of anxiety sitting amongst ageing organisers of ‘media and >> electronic art’ conferences, flagrantly dispersed across seats in a >> hermetically sealed conference hall. The pungent smell of corporate >> detergent whips from nostril to nostril – sedating delegates into >> acceptance. We are one with this neutered centre: this hollow space that >> lacks any semblance with creativity >> >> >> >> Past the security guards, and after the obligatory metal detector check, the >> Artistic Director, Lanfranco Aceti screeches angrily of our exclusion from >> the canon of art history (or is it his?) We have been systematically >> excluded: us media artists and media art theorists. One begs, as brutally as >> the Blacks and the Arabs have been excluded, taunted and reduced by the >> fierce brunt of slavery and Orientalism? >> >> >> >> Aceti on his soapbox is one of many merchants of deception. Feeding us the >> politics of exile so that it may be adopted as a flag – a unifying device of >> camaraderie. Yet, if one were to look around, the sense of a >> self-aggrandising ghetto abounds. We live in an era where post-modernist >> thinkers are hailing themselves as futurists. It is a milieu where the old >> guard who made their mark masquerading around with a sense of entitlement >> are still fighting for representation, despite their relative acceptance. >> >> >> >> Suddenly, these theoreticians, i.e. conference organisers are scrambling. >> Jostling from one soapbox to another repeating the same diatribes because >> the foundations that they laid are changing. It is their only form of >> validation. With the loss of government subsidies to university posts, and >> as the theoretical paradigms that they have set become outdated by the new >> (er) media, which they have yet to catch up with, it becomes all the more >> clear – they are dancing a panicked hop. It is a charade. >> >> >> >> From a cursory glance, it seems to be that they have all fled to Australia. >> ‘How you going?’ being the adopted opener for those who dabble in ‘media or >> electronic art’. But from this distant island, they gather in a place that >> is neither here nor there. >> >> >> >> Look around you. You are in Turkey. Yet, one sees not a Turkish face in the >> audience, bar the organiser’s former assistant. >> >> >> >> The irony of this historical chain of events seems lost not only on the >> organiser, but also on his a punters, who bask in the ghetto of their own >> making. >> > > > Simon Biggs > [log in to unmask] www.littlepig.org.uk @SimonBiggsUK skype: simonbiggsuk > > [log in to unmask] Edinburgh College of Art University of Edinburgh > www.eca.ac.uk/circle www.elmcip.net www.movingtargets.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------- Beryl Graham, Professor of New Media Art Research Student Manager, Art and Design MA Curating Course Leader Faculty of Arts, Design, and Media, University of Sunderland Ashburne House, Ryhope Road Sunderland SR2 7EE Tel: +44 191 515 2896 Fax: +44 191 515 2132 Email: [log in to unmask] CRUMB web resource for new media art curators http://www.crumbweb.org CRUMB's new books: Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media from MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12071 A Brief History of Curating New Media Art, and A Brief History of Working with New Media Art from The Green Box http://www.thegreenbox.net Visit www.sunderland.ac.uk/tv to see the University's new TV ads