Arse Elektronika

I'll be speaking at Arse Elektronika tomorrow at 8:30. If you'll be there, come say hi!

http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/index.html

my fabulous outfit from last night

Bah, the picture is unfortunately blurry and the color is a little off (the skirt and fishnet shirt are more purple), but here's a picture of my fabulous outfit from last night.

Blogging Arse Elektronika

metaphorge and I are blogging Arse Elektronika talks and panels today. So far, we've gotten started a little late, but it's already worth the 4 hours of sleep I've had. The free bagels and orange juice have won my heart, and here I am.

Mark Dery at AE - Pornotopia vs. the Culture Wars

Mark Dery has long been one of my academic heroes. His essay on culture jamming has deeply inspired my work, both academic and personal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Dery

I can hardly do his talk justice. The metaphors are fast and furious, dense communication as good as sex. Here are some of my notes:

The visual rhetoric of the adult industry is now influencing even cooking shows, "food porn." First bite reactions as money shot, shamelessly orgasmic. He shows us this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auzvV5OHwWA This always makes him think of the anti-gay activist Anita Bryant's quote that homosexuals are vampires because they "eat life," meaning another man's sperm. The Food Network's slogan, "Taste Life" takes on a whole new meaning. Freudian meanings of the "mellon baller" indeed.

Faith based "sex education" urges children to bring Jesus along on a hot date - talk about ruining the mood! Faith-based information is suicidal at a moment when Planned Parenthood shows that teen pregnancy in the US is highest in the developed world. Sexual values are a flashpoint in the culture wars. Tom Coburn claims that lesbianism is so rampant in schools in Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom at a time (!!). (Where was *I* when this was going on, I ask you??)

The interconnected nature of the link-driven web and the frenzy of online advertisement has simply made visible the variety of sexual expression that was already there. Back in the day, lonely people thought they were the "only one" - but now we are able to connect. The search engine is not highly regarded enough as an influence on society. Until 1973, official culture pathologized virtually everything besides missionary position. Now we have to ratchet up to gain disapproval from the mainstream. Buttcam.com - the moment when the panopticon buries its head in fear. We are living in the golden age of the golden shower.

War porn, torture porn, gore-nography, humilitainment - these things are porn too, of the worst sort. Abu Gag, an allegory of American might - men in headscarves speaking fake Arabic forcing women in American soldier uniforms to give blowjobs. Clearly America is working out some issues, here. George Bush once bragged to Ariel Sharon that "when we run Osama bin Laden into the ground, I will fuck him in the ass." Karl Rove said something similar, "we will fuck him. we will fuck him like he has never been fucked before." (Entertainingly, Norton anti-virus worm protection comes on at this time. He's left Bush on the screen too long!) Bush upped his manliness by mispronouncing Saddam as Sodom. Bush's resolve never to be branded a wimp is the lash that drives him, thus his hyperbolic masculinity.

The trouble with manood American-style is that it takes a lot to get it up and keep it up. It comes at a price, the man's feminine side. Steven Ducat's book speaks of fem-o-phobia - the most important thing about being a man is not being a woman. Bush has started whisper campaigns against opponents saying that they're gay. The hidden costs of the tough-guy myth are far worse than a few politicians' losses - the war in Iraq & Bush's refusal to admit mistakes that misreads rigidity as strength. Don't pull out! 300 as both homoerotic and homophobic. Xerxes resembles Ru Paul with a hyperactive thyroid! (lol) He travels on a stage held by fifty scantily clad Persian boys - and, Al Gore bonus points, no carbon footprints!

Prepare for Glory, America! Prepare for glory.

He leaves us with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2t58CRmbU

Carol Queen on history of vibrators at AE

The first half of this was blogged by metaphorge, last half by me.

Dr. Carol Queen

Your Great Grandmother's Vibrator: How the Technologies of our times shape sex and pleasure

Technologies of orgasm of the past shed light on the present.

Antique vibrators collection at Good Vibes.

Center for Sex and Culture collection.

These days vibrators not bought to "relieve hysteria".

Concentrating on 1880-1930.

Concentrate on masturbation and orgasm as a form of entertainment.

Natural History Museum. Ancient mesopotamian ceramic dildoes mislabeled as "tent pegs".

Joanie Blank-founder of good vibes reached adulthood without having an orgasm, decided orgasms were important to found good vibes. Started a museum in 1977.

"It's polite to diddle someone if they did not come."

Why would people seek sex information on the internet? Because they don't get it from anywhere else.

Need to develop vibrators that will work when electricity is not readily available.

Awareness of antique vibrators a "click moment" in feminism.

Medical community does not receive enough sex information.

Rachel Nades (sp?) did early research.

"Hysteria" probably rooted in women's sexual frustration from not having orgasms, difficulty in managing household, household technology. Orgasm relieves "hysteria", led to production of vibrators for medical technology. Even doctors were probably not aware they were giving women orgasms, saw them as "hysterical paroxysms of relief".

Hysteria caused by the womb coming loose and wandering around the body.

Early on "hysteria relief" administered by midwives (as a lower level of medical provider than male medical professionals). Orgasm through manual stimulation took too long, difficult if there was not sufficient arousal. Midwives supplanted by technology. Water stimulation, spray from hoses at spas. Hydrotherapy took too much remodeling of officespace, so large steam-powered vibrators developed. Eventually electrical motors became pervasive. Women went in regularly to be given orgasms by doctors because they were not given them at home, probably no one involved understood it was a sexual experience.

By 1905 public acknowledgment of the benefits of vibrators, widespread and marketing advertising in magazines aimed at women (needlework etc.).

Heating electrical buttplug required a light bulb.

Older explicit material does not look that pornofied. In fact, it looks downright artistic.

There were more electric vibrators in homes than electric toasters in 1917.

If we gave a 1920s marriage manual to a highschool student today, it would be better sexual education than they're getting at school.

Vibrators are good for your health. They increase blood flow.

In the 1950s, the doctors voted hysteria out of the medical books. Vick Tanney was a pre-Charles Atlas gym equipment hawker. His gorgeous wife was in a high profile porn film called The Nun, using one of these vibrators for a clearly sexual purpose. The doctors were so embarrassed that they voted hysteria out of the books, and claimed that it never really existed in the first place.

Any technology that is currently not in the hands of the people is likely to get into the hands of the people. If any technology that exists can be focused on the needs and entertainment of people, then many other opportunities for pleasure will meld sexuality and technology.

Robert said, "any new technology that can be used to communicate info of any sort between two humans will be used for sexual stimulation." Paranoid corrollary: as soon as this is developed, the larger society will attempt to oppress it while at the same time coopting it for political purposes.

Thank goodness that there is masturbation, this one glimmer of light in this time of darkness.

Violet Blue at AE - Ceiling Cat Hates Your Porn - Sexual Privacy Online

Violet Blue is a local sex educator, author, etc. I've been really impressed with her blogs and column on SFGate, not to mention her website. Here's more on her:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Blue_%28author%29

She starts by talking about the Craig's List Experiment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy#Jason_Fortuny_and_Craigslist
http://seattlest.com/2006/09/11/violet_blue_on_the_craigslist_experiment.php
Some might argue that the Craig's List experiment was a sort of Darwinian selection, while others find the idea deeply offensive.

She references the recent case where an Arizona police officer who lost his job for running a porn site with himself and his wife:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0635798220070906

Anonymous sex bloggers often quit blogging when their anonymity is compromised. Girl with a One Track Mind was an anonymous sex blogger who got an anonymous book deal (by the same name). One day after work, she found herself ambushed by paparazzi. She did not expect to get outed, and when she did, she had to hide out for weeks. She also lost her film career as a result (she worked on the Harry Potter films). Ex-lovers called her, upset about things she had said about them. http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/2006/08/outed.html http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com/2007/08/anonymity.html

2257 laws spell out requirements for record keeping for pornographic producers. Anyone recorded and paid for sexual activity must have their legal identity kept on file ... virtually forever. Violet Blue gets promotional images from producers, and when being sent DVDs to review, she also gets DVDs with photographs of performers and their IDs and Social Security cards. (Like this one without the info blacked out.) Imagine if you were in a play, and copies of your drivers license and social security card were sent to every producer. Not only that, but they were sent out to people who were thinking about putting the play on again three years later. And your home address, and every name you'd ever worked under, and your email address, and your phone number. And so on. Privacy? Hah. These DVDs are getting sent out to anyone who could be considered a "secondary producer" - review sites, some stores, etc. This is terrifying.

Compromised anonymity is a big problem for LGBT people and fetishists. When people cannot expect anonymity, it's very difficult to engage in expression that might be misunderstood by the greater society. Who else needs anonymity? Anyone seeking good sex info. Similarly, women need anonymity in order to express themselves sexually when the greater society makes women sexual targets. Shoppers also need sexual privacy - adult companies can get away with shady practices because customers are ashamed of purchases. Anonymity ensures less chance of identity theft associated with sexual shopping sprees.

Sexual privacy online should be seen as an attempt at harm reduction. People are going to engage in risky behaviors, and it is vital that we mitigate risks by creating actual alternatives.

Check out Violet's site on safe porn surfing: http://www.tinynibbles.com/pornsurfing.htm

In the questions, Violet makes a really good point about the pervasive mining of personal data in non-sexual sites, too. Regulation of sexual privacy could flow back to non-sexual privacy too.. perhaps one of the reasons we're not dealing with it in the first place.

She also mentioned this awesome story that I had not heard about - the Republican mayor of San Diego just signed a petition for same sex marriage when he had previously planned to veto it. http://wockner.blogspot.com/2007/09/republican-san-diego-mayor-embraces.html

link i just posted, read this (on same sex marriage)

I just posted this at the end of the blog of Violet Blue's talk, but I wanted to make sure you read it.

http://wockner.blogspot.com/2007/09/republican-san-diego-mayor-embraces.html

The Republican mayor of San Diego just signed a city council petition in favor of same sex marriage. He had planned to veto it, but at the last minute realized that he couldn't live with himself if he vetoed it. He gave a speech where he broke down crying about it, and the transcript at that url is really gorgeous and wonderful and quotable. Please read it.

Violet Blue interviews Eon McKai at AE

Eon McKai is a producer of arty porn for a mainstream porn company. Violet Blue interviews him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eon_McKai

Johannes asks a question, saying that mainstream porn tends to discourage individuality. How can someone like Eon work within the mainstream and still get away with being creative? Eon answers that the art school trope of "oh man I'm going to work when I'm out of art school" often leaves people out in the cold. Going into porn pays for art, and keeps you producing. Letting it become a venue for creativity along with the sex keeps the creativity flowing.

Violet asks, how is the way that you market your porn different from the way your company would market your porn? Eon does guerrilla marketing. Standard marketing gets photos and booth babes in line with production timelines, etc etc etc. Eon himself is more interested in sharing things directly. In The Doll Underground, he is influenced by the Japanese techniques of dealing with mandated censorship. There is a certain sexiness to this that he wants to bring into US porn.

Violet says that NBC is forcing producers to blog because 'blog' is sort of a buzzword, but doesn't then know what to do with them. She asks, is this similar to how mainstream porn deals with work like yours? AVN can talk about you and you'll get like 200 hits.

Violet mentions the dying DVD - what do you think about that? Eon says, it's dying because you can steal it. With music, you start marketing and selling the record at the same time now. In pornography, it's websites, digital media. You can get this stuff online and it's killing the DVD. People get their porn at the computer because it's just so comfortable. Not only can other people not see you, but even people at your house can't see that you have it. The Adam and Eve catalog seems to continue, though, despite being something of an old medium. In fact, they have rules that are fairly strict that wind up somewhat dictating content.

Eon says that he is moving towards doing online-only content. The future is community, format is dead.

Eon says he's been thinking about transgressive behavior, since he recently curated an exhibition on it. The Doll Underground is about every conspiracy theory you ever wanted to feast on when you were fifteen years old. Something happens when you go to art school and your work has to be really serious, but then you become a pornographer and your work can be playful. It brings in Adbusters style stuff, theory stuff. There's an element where you're trying to start a cult. To truly transgress, you have to go through pain and it will alter your life. Nick Zed has never made compromises, never paid taxes... and how many of you are familiar with his work? As an artist... if you can find an audience in your lifetime, that's a really powerful thing and you kinda want to rock that.

On the technology side... do you think that you will have more latitude online? Eon says that Vivid would like to continue making features... which are not popular with people who like to masturbate. Audience says, there's a difference between movies you want to watch and then go fuck someone else, and movies you want to watch while you fuck or masturbate. Doll Underground is a movie you want to watch and then go fuck someone else. Most mainstream porn won't mix hardcore penetration with BDSM, but Vivid does because it's part of the stories involved, it's contextualized. Distributors still dictate some content, but there are limits to this once you actually connect to people.

AE:Stefan Lutschinger: The Re-Judgement of Paris: How “Ob/scenity” Gave the World Modern Art in 1863

Stefan Lutschinger is an artist and digital designer.

http://www.digitaldrafts.at/

"Sex is the apple of Discordian, and probably always will be. "

Bolshevic post/modernism - Malcolm McLaren was accused as pornography by Scotland Yard for taking an image for an album cover that was a version of a famous painting, including a naked woman (with wobly bits covered). In 1863, Edouard Manet was accused of pornography for making the original painting.

Manet's painting Luncheon on the Grass was rejected by the academy of art in Paris because it depicted a modern nude woman with two clothed men, attending a picnic. Classical nudes were accepted, but this was not ok. In response, several other artists formed a group of the rejected, who in turn held an exhibition that was more widely attended than the original exhibition in the first place.

Stefan goes on to tell the story of the original snub.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Snub
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_paris
The Judgment of Paris is a moral episode in which lust is condemned.

If everyone had accurate recollections of the past, observations of the present and knowledge of the future, then speech would be useless. As it is, deception is easy.

He references Makavejev: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du%C5%A1an_Makavejev and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.R.:_Mysteries_of_the_Organism
Makavejev references Wilhelm Reich's work on orgone energy, life energy related to orgasm. Wilhelm Reich wrote a book on the function of the orgasm and its role in neurosis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

He was a proponent of free love and free sexuality. We watch a couple of film clips. In one, a woman decries abstinence as un-revolutionary. When you deprive youth of free love, they will seize everything else. Thousands of Soviets march to a song where they sing, "life without fucking isn't worth a thing!" Free love is the cornerstone of communism and the revolution.

Audience member asks about Paris - his other two options were war or true beauty. Which should we choose?

AE: David Dempsey: Porn and Personal Development

David Dempsey is an American ex-pat who lives in Vienna now, an artist and designer.

The funny thing about porn is that a lot of people still don't want to talk about it. In trying to find these people, he realized he was outing himself as a porn performer to a lot of people who probably didn't want to know that. He wanted to record a video interview to show people at AE, but people got gunshy when it looked too real.

Porn has taught him a lot, not just about sex. He found his first porn magazine when he was 6, playing hide and seek. (Personal note - this is about how I found my first porn magazine too. I found my dad's Playboys under the television. I remember later hanging out with a babysitter, asking her where those parts were on me. She showed me. I guess these days she'd probably go to jail for that.) When caught, he told his first lie. (I remember my first lie, saying I'd done homework when I hadn't. I was believed. Suddenly, my parents were not omniscient. It made a big impression.)

He lost his fear of heights by choosing to climb up high to find porn that had been hidden. When his parents figured this out, the porn was locked away... so he learned to pick locks. Useful skills found while seeking porn. This is also how he got into computers. His father learned how to use the VHS recorder in an attempt to record pay-per-view porn. His father got into new forms of technology. David got an Apple IIe because his father thought it was "good for learning," and how. When his friend brought in a 300 baud modem... he found bulletin boards. He learned to join adult bulletin boards with early brute force attacks. He moved onto Usenet, also in pursuit of porn. And on, and on.

Porn was one of the reasons that the English language was established in England. The primary language was French and the Church was in Latin. The Canterbury Tales was fairly lewd for the time, and in order to read it, one had to understand the London vernacular of the time. Porn also helped spread literacy - after Gutenberg invented the printing press, some of the first published works were erotic literature. People had to go learn to read to jack off - perhaps this could help fix America's adult literacy problem? Cowboys out on the range were willing to pay more for a photograph of a naked woman than they were for a night in bed with a woman. Similarly, the photographers had to learn about photography in order to sell porn.