Sex machines, orgasmatrons, teledildonics, Oh My! Arse Elektronika conference in SF 10/1-10/4

Violet Blue – one of my favorite writers on sex, tech, and sex/tech – turned me on to the Arse Elektronika: Of Intercourse and Intracourse conference happening this week in San Francisco, October 1-4.

Blue is one of the speakers on the "Of Hypercrotch and Nanobot" panel at the 3rd annual sex and technology conference. The conference will also feature speakers Saul Albert, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Kim De Vries, Reesa Brown, R. U. Sirius, Annalee Newitz, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Monika Kribusz, Kyle Machulis, Ani Niow, Pepper Mint, Rainer Prohaska, Eleanor Saitta, Randy Sarafan, Jason Scott, Douglas Spink, Allen Stein, Uncle Abdul, Noah Weinstein, Rose White, and a full program of multimedia artists and performers.

Events this week include the Arse Elektronika Film Festival at the Roxie Theater, a series of lectures at the Center for Sex and Culture, talks and panels at PariSoMa and Noisebridge, and performances and installations at Femina Potens Gallery. The Prixxx Arse Elektronika Awards will be presented on October 1 at the Roxie Theater, honoring "sex machines, orgasmatrons, and teledildonics." It truly is quite a world we live in, isn't it?

Via www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika:

We may not forget that mankind is a sexual and tool-using species. And that's why our annual conference Arse Elektronika deals with sex, technology and the future. As bio-hacking, sexually enhanced bodies, genetic utopias and plethora of gender have long been the focus of literature, science fiction and, increasingly, pornography, this year will see us explore the possibilities that fictional and authentic bodies have to offer. Our world is already way more bizarre than our ancestors could have ever imagined. But it may not be bizarre enough. "Bizarre enough for what?" -- you might ask. Bizarre enough to subvert the heterosexist matrix that is underlying our world and that we should hack and overcome for some quite pressing reasons within the next century. Don't you think, replicants? – Johannes Grenzfurthner/monochrom (Conference organizer)

For more from Violet Blue, check out her Open Source Sex column for the San Francisco Chronicle (this week: Her Plastic Vagina: April Flores tells all about her body part sex toy), her sex blog at TinyNibbles.com and her tech blog at techyum.com

If you can't make it out to the Arse Elektronika events in San Francisco, check out the Arse Elektronika anthologies Do Androids Sleep With Electric Sheep? Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction and prOnnovation? Pornography and Technological Innovation: monocrhom's Arse Elektronika Anthology for a sense of what you're missing.