Arse Elektronika is an annual conference organized by the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n arts and philosophy collective

monochrom Monochrom (stylised as monochrom) is an international art-technology-philosophy group, publishing house and film production company. It was founded in 1993, and defines itself as "an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop att ...

, focused on sex and technology. The festival presents talks, workshops, machines, presentations and films. The festival's curator is

Johannes Grenzfurthner Johannes Grenzfurthner (; born 1975 in Vienna) is an Austrian artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, curator, theatre director, performer and lecturer. Grenzfurthner is the founder, conceiver and artistic director of ''monochrom'', an international art ...

. Between 2007 and 2015, the event was held in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, but is now a traveling event in different countries. The name Arse Elektronika is a pun on Ars Electronica, the name of an arts and technology organization also based in Austria. Speakers at past conferences have included

Violet Blue Violet Blue is an American journalist, author, editor, advisor, and educator. Blue wrote a weekly sex column for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' until 2010. In her podcast, Open Source Sex, she reads erotica and discusses topics such as feti ...

Mark Dery Mark Dery (born December 24, 1959)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Mark Dery" (accessed February 12, 2008). is an American author, lecturer and cultural critic. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the ter ...

Richard Kadrey Richard Kadrey (born August 27, 1957) is a San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer. Kadrey was born in New York City, New York. Fiction Kadrey has written fifteen novels, including ''The New York Times'' Best Seller ...

Annalee Newitz Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals '' Popular Science'' and ''Wired''. From 1999 to 2008 Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column cal ...

Carol Queen Carol Queen (born 1957) is an American author, editor, sociologist, and sexologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen is a two time Grand Marshal of San Francisco LGBTQ Pride. Queen has written on human sexuality in books such a ...

Susie Bright Susannah Bright (born March 25, 1958) is an American feminist, author, journalist, critic, editor, publisher, producer, and performer, often on the subject of politics and sexuality. She is the recipient of the 2017 Humanist Feminist Award, and ...

and

Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...

, with demonstrations by Kyle Machulis of the blog Slashdong;

Heather Kelley Heather Kelley (aka ''Moboid'') is a media artist, writer and video game designer. She is a co-founder of the Kokoromi experimental game collective, with whom she produces and curates the annual Gamma game event promoting experimental games as cre ...

; Allen Stein of Thrillhammer; and other engineers of the

pornographic website Internet pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the internet, primarily via websites, FTP servers peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The availability of widespread public access to the World Wide Web in late 1990s ...

Fucking Machines Fucking Machines (also known as fuckingmachines.com and fuckingmachines) is a pornographic website founded in 2000 that features video and photographs of women engaged in autoerotic sexual stimulation with penetrative sex-machines and sex toy ...

''. Arse Elektronika became a point of reference for many debates around sex and technology.

Main conferences

Johannes Grenzfurthner at Arse Elektronika 2007

* 2007: The first conference, dealing with the impact of sex on

technological innovation Technological innovation is an extended concept of innovation. While innovation is a rather well-defined concept, it has a broad meaning to many people, and especially numerous understanding in the academic and business world. Innovation refers t ...

and adoption. * 2008: "Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep: Critical Perspectives on Sex and Science Fiction," focused on sex and technology as seen through the futurist lens of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

, as well as depictions of science fiction in pornography. * 2009:, "Of Intercourse and Intracourse" dealt with bodies and the modification thereof, including wetware,

gene therapy Gene therapy is a medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying human DN ...

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used ...

and

body modification Body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance. In its broadest definition it includes skin tattooing, socially acceptable decoration (''e.g.'', common ear piercing in many so ...

. Talks also speculated on the social impacts of these technologies, particularly the implications on heteronormativity if biological sex becomes easily changeable. * 2010: "Space Racy", dealt with issues of

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

, both in an architectural and aeronautical sense. Topics included the possibility of sex in outer space, the gendered and/or sexualized nature of built spaces, interspecies romance in video games, and an interactive installation called '' Six Feet Under Club'' in which participants could have sex while buried in a surveillant coffin. * 2011: "Screw the System," dealt with sex, technology, class politics, and culture. * 2012: "4PLAY: Gamifuckation and Its Discontents" dealt with sex, technology and games. * 2013: "id/entity" dealt with sex, technology and identity. * 2014:, "TRANS*.*" dealt with technology and sexuality in societal and personal transition. * 2015 : "Shoot Your Workload" dealt with technology and sexuality and work (tech and sex work; work and labour politics in context of sex tech; work in a physical context).

Additional exhibitions and performances

Arse Elektronika organizes exhibitions and lecture performances world-wide that are not always part of the actual conference. In April 2010, the first Arse Elektronika exhibition "Techno(sexual) Bodies" was presented at ''Videotage'' in the city of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

; it was curated by

and Isaac Leung. In March 2019, monochrom presented (as part of an Arse Elektronika special at '' NRW-Forum'' in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

) a sex robot called ''Nekropneum Fuckenbrust Neckhammer 40k''.

Publications

''pr0nnovation? Pornography and Technological Innovation'' (Arse Elektronika Anthology #1) * Edited by

, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry. Published by

RE/Search RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded by its editor V. Vale in 1980. In several issues, Andrea Juno was also credited as an editor. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanz ...

Publications (San Francisco) in cooperation with monochrom. * Features essays by Michael Achenbach, Timothy Archibald, Peter Asaro, Thomas Ballhausen, Binx,

, Jonathan Coopersmith,

, Thomas Edlinger,

, Ema Konstantinova, Tina Lorenz, Stefan Lutschinger, Kyle Machulis ( Slashdong), Aaron Muszalski,

, Thomas Roche, Autumn Tyr-Salvia, Frank Apunkt Schneider, Katie Vann, Rose White, Amanda Williams, Katherina Zakravsky. ''Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep? Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction'' (Arse Elektronika Anthology #2) * Edited by

, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry, Thomas Ballhausen. Published by

Publications (San Francisco) in cooperation with monochrom. * Featuring essays and short-stories by

, James Tiptree, Jr., Allen Stein, Sharing is Sexy, Jason Brown,

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog '' Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

, Tina Lorenz, Reesa Brown, Karin Harrasser, Isaac Leung, Rose White, Mela Mikes, Viviane, Susan Mernit, Chris Noessel, Kit O'Connell, Jens Ohlig, Bonni Rambatan, Thomas Roche, Bonnie Ruberg, Mae Saslaw,

, Nathan Shedroff, 23N!, Benjamin Cowden,

, Daniel Fabry. ''Of Intercourse and Intracourse – Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere'' (Arse Elektronika Anthology #3) * Edited by

, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry. Published by

Publications (San Francisco) in cooperation with monochrom. * Featuring essays and short-stories by Eleanor Saitta, R.U. Sirius, Jack Sargeant,

, Katrien Jacobs, Christian Heller, Bonni Rambatan, Kyle Machulis, Saul Albert, Tatiana Bazzichelli,

, Douglas Spink, Rose White, Rainer Prohaska, Thomas Ballhausen, Uncle Abdul, Elle Mehrmand (Echolalia Azalee), Micha Cárdenas (Azdel Slade), Ani Niow, Monika Kribusz, Noah Weinstein, Randy Sarafan, Allen Stein, Kim De Vries, Pepper Mint, Robert Glashuettner, Jonathon Keats. ''Screw The System – Explorations of Spaces, Games and Politics through Sexuality and Technology'' (Arse Elektronika Anthology #4) * Edited by

, Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry. Published by

Publications (San Francisco) in cooperation with monochrom. * Featuring essays and short-stories by Jaakko Stenros, Paolo Pedercini, Rosalynn Rothstein, Adam Rothstein, Jack Sargeant, Anna Anthropy, Heather Kelley,

Lindsay Grace Lindsay Grace is a video game designer, artist, professor, and writer who currently lives in Miami, FL. He is best known as an academic game designer who employs critical design. He is the 2019 Games for Change Vanguard Award winner and Knight ...

, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Maggie Mayhem, Ned Mayhem, Kristen Stubbs, Marco Maiocchi, Margherita Pillan, Marko Radeta, Pietro Righi Riva, Samuel Coniglio, Katherine Becvar, Nadja Sayej, Thomas Ballhausen, Philip Freeman, Jonathan Mann, Rich Gibson, Maymay.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Arse Elektronika website

Austrian artist groups and collectives Culture of San Francisco Monochrom Recurring events established in 2007 Sexuality and society Technology conferences Sexuality and computing Robotic art 2007 in robotics Machine sex