Arse Elektronika 2023: Sexponential
Call for talks, performances, games, workshops, machines, systems!
September 7-10, 2023 at DH5 in Linz, Austria
Humans, replicants!
Arse Elektronika is back! And it is our 10th iteration!
Technology and sexuality have always been closely connected, from ancient cave drawings of genitalia to modern virtual-reality pornography. While it is impossible to predict the future, the history of technology suggests that sex will continue to be a driving force in technological development and that technology will shape human sexuality. Despite the common belief that technology isolates us and destroys genuine human connection, it is essential to remember that humans are both sexual beings and tool users. Technology can be used to challenge and change the oppressive and male-dominated power structures within expressions of sexuality, e.g. mainstream pornography. It can also provide new opportunities for self-expression and fulfillment of underrepresented desires.
From an evolutionary perspective, sexuality is a complex and central aspect of the human experience that is not always rational or practical. Some behaviors and characteristics that result from sexual selection in animals may have negative consequences or be detrimental to an individual’s survival or the survival of a population. However, homo sapiens has created a cultural environment that allows for exploring sexuality beyond the narrow purpose of reproduction. While evolution has already shaped humans to be highly sexual beings, society has imposed additional limitations and constraints on sexuality, often in the form of social barriers.
Sex technology offers a range of possibilities for communication and resistance, including teledildonics, sex machines, biohacking, and the creation of bodies with enhanced sexual capabilities. These ideas have long been explored in science fiction and literature, and it is time to consider them both intellectually and sensually. Technology, artificial intelligence, and artificial intimacy can help us to think and understand sexuality within the context of social evolution and potentially break free from these limitations.
Let’s go! Submit a talk, a performance, a game, a workshop, a machine, a system!
As part of the festival, „edition mono“ will publish the Arse Elektronika Anthology #5. We encourage literary submissions to accompany your festival entry.
Deadline: April 30, 2023. Submit to arse@dh5.space
Kiki and Bubu: Rated R Us at the sex cinema
The exhibition "Sex in Vienna", shown 2017 at Wien Museum, mentioned the Fortuna Kino. It is - besides Kino Breitensee, also in Vienna, one of the oldest still active cinemas worldwide. It managed to survive the times by turning into a sex cinema. After extending the U1 and building the new subway station U1 Troststraße it ran through changes. The cinema was completely restored in its initial form (and got officially certified according to the prostitution act). Every third saturday per month it switches back to be the cinema that it was before - and shows classic movies in a cinema worth visiting, as it is a museum itself. Porn Film Festival Vienna 2019 will feature our philosophical sock puppets Kiki and Bubu in the full feature movie Rated R Us.
Saturday, April 6, 2019, 5 pm., Fortuna Kino, Favoritenstraße 147, 1100 Wien. Buy your tickets at the door.
Sexmachines on display
NEKROPNEUM FUCKENBRUST NECKHAMMER 40k / A sex machine by monochrom feat.Thomas Kranabetter and Christian Schüler. Use and abuse this poly-sexual source of compressed lust and horror! Never before were carnal enjoyment and bodily horror so close! A torso you will haveHAWT nightmares about. To quote Salman Rushdie: "Shame is like everythingelse; live with it for long enough and it becomes part of the furniture.
PROSTATE HERO by Thomas Kranabetter. This playful interface makes it possible for you to experience the trueessence of being human: disgust, horniness, gamification and drunkenness, rightat your fingertips! Treat dat ass rite -- and you will receive booze!
The machines can be viewed (and tested!) at the Porn to be wild Playparty at Schwelle Wien, Tellgasse 25, 1150 Wien. 25 EUR admission.
Porn dresscode applies. You don´t dress up - you don´t get in! more: https://www.pffv.at/program/porn-to-be-wild-playparty
Lecture: Screw the System: power and pornography
Sex is one of the most intimate and at the same time most political themes of human existence. We are sexual, technological, narrative and political beings. We have our preferences and kinks, and we do everything we can to make them either come true - or be passively consumed. How and when and in what way we do this is strongly influenced by the social context. Pornography, the most wondrous of all forms of commercial art, reminds us that we are stuck in a power structure. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with pornography itself, but it shows that imbalances have digged deep into the foundations of our civilization and dominate our view of sexuality. But our approach to sex and its portrayal in the media can help to change and break up these social codifications. Marx's categorical imperative is to overturn all conditions in which man is a humiliated, a subjugated, an abandoned, a contemptible being. And of course this also applies (and is unfortunately forgotten again and again) to our sexual relationships. Johannes Grenzfurthner wants to address the question of how we can help pornography save itself - and society.
This Lecture is part of Porn Film Festival Vienna. Johannes Grenzfurthner will talk at Raum D, Museumsquartier Wien on April 5, 2019, starting at 6:30 pm.
No admission fees. No registration needed.
Fucking Machines: Arse Elektronika in ‘The Gap’
An article in 'The Gap' deals with sex tech and Arse Elektronika. It's based on an interview with Johannes Grenzfurthner (German only).
Das österreichische Kollektiv Monochrom beschäftigt sich seit Jahren mit dem Zusammenspiel zwischen der Sexindustrie und der Tech-Welt. Bereits 2007 veranstalteten sie im Startup-Mekka San Francisco die erste Arse Elektronika, eine Konferenz für Sex & Tech, bei der jedes Jahr zahlreiche Speaker zu Wort kommen und neue Technologien vorgestellt werden. Während die Veranstaltung zunächst als einmaliges Event geplant war, wurde sie dank dem starken Zuspruch jährlich wiederholt und feiert nun ihr 10-jähriges Jubiläum. „Sex-Technologie ist ein sehr großer Bereich, der von Pornos auf Blu-ray bis zu einer technisch kontrollierbaren Fucking Machine reicht.“, erklärt Johannes Grenzfurthner, Initiator der Arse Elektronika. Unterschieden werden kann dabei zwischen Nischenprodukten, wie eigens angefertigten Fucking Machines, die nur ein kleines ausgewähltes Publikum ansprechen und dem Mainstream-Markt, der vor allem Pornos und Sex Toys konsumiert. Ein großes Thema in den letzten Jahren sei vor allem der Bereich der Teledildonik. Darunter fallen aus der Ferne steuerbare Sex Toys, die Remote-Control-Sex ermöglichen. Ebenfalls interessant seien reacting Sex Toys, wie beispielsweise Ambrosia Vibes, ein Dildo mit sogenanntem „Sucking Sensor“. Saugt jemand an dem Strap-On, gibt dieser Vibrationen an den Träger weiter.
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