current feature
the webcamatic gaze: reconfiguring visual eroticism?
This is the second of a three-part series adapted from my talk at Arse Elektronika: "Sex and Computation in a Material World" Check out part 1.

This could also be titled: How I learned to stop worrying and love (via) my webcam.

"Cultural context", sticky though it may be, is also always being configured and reconfigured by people acting and reacting within it. I suspected that, if this script of the typically masculine, objectifying gaze is being reconfigured anywhere, it's happening amongst internet users. The thing that cemented this suspicion for me was my webcam.

Rather than the distance required to visually possess or take in a whole, my way of seeing through my webcam is close in a way more often associated with touch. This reconfigures the gaze, or reinvents a sort of gaze that is not necessarily about power, possession, control, or distance; it becomes a kind of gaze that I can be perfectly comfortable with, a more holistic way of seeing that seems more closely tied to position, to the body, to other senses. (more...)

by metamanda
11.14.2008
recent notes
consuming bodies
We Make Money Not Art recently reviewed Consuming Bodies: Sex and Contemporary Japanese Art:
A precious characteristic of the essays is that its authors do not isolate art and analyse or comment on it for its own sake but they also take into account the historical and material circumstances which have conditioned the emergence of contemporary Japanese art. besides the account of the imaging of sex and consumerism moves beyond the glamour, exotic and amusing aspects of Japanese behaviours and explores with much finesse the balance between the private and public aspects of sexual activities as found in media, comics, departments stores, etc.
Looks interesting, beautiful, sexy. I want. (more...)
by metamanda
11.03.2007
i'm mclovin' it
Joe Kugelmass writes about sexuality in the age of advertising with his typical insight, connecting the dots between the popularity of rule-based approaches to sexual and romantic interaction, work and leisure, the culture of advertisement and commodification, irony, authenticity, sweetness, and time. My favorite sentence: "Thus the nostalgia for adolescence is as desperate as it is superior, because what adolescence really represents is a period when there was enough time, and enough unknowns, that romances felt less arranged. In absence of that real slow time, we are back to simulation and the montage promises of the commercial." It's great when I can have research crushes on people who are also my friends. (more...)
by metamanda
11.03.2007
what's new
Getting it on!
The fall 2008 issue of Ambidextrous, a Stanford design-school-affiliated magazine, has just launched. The theme of this issue is "Getting it On", and features articles on condom applicators, zippers, vaginal speculums (specula?), the museum of sex in NY, and more. I had a hand in editing, so naturally, I am proud of the magazine, but I have to say the entire editorial and writing staff of this magazine were a joy to work with. w00t! (more...)
by metamanda
11.14.2008
Naked On The Internet
A little while ago I picked up Audacia Ray's new book Naked On The Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing in on Internet Sexploration.

Naked on the Internet is just right -- smart and insightful without lapsing overmuch into lingo that isn't understandable to a reasonably intelligent lay person. This makes it an easy and quick read, without being fluff. She's accountable to the ways that her own experiences have shaped her point of view, without turning the book into an exercise in personal navel gazing. On the whole, the book required several different balancing acts from the author, and she actually managed to do it. (more...)
by metamanda
10.15.2007
Arse Elektronika, digested
Several days later, coverage of Arse Elektronika is all over the internets. I don't have good notes on all the excellent talks featured there, but Autumn Tyr-Salvia does. (Links to her very thorough individual entries at the bottom.)

Violet Blue gave a really insightful talk on sexual privacy online.

Aaron Muszalski spoke about the prevalence of digital visual effects and their present and future role in the production of pornography.

And some lists of other articles to check out, and some of the porn that really caught my attention. (more...)
by metamanda
10.13.2007
Arse Elektronika
Arse Elektronika is happening, right this minute, at the Kink.com Porn Palace.

Friday night's demos included a fucking machines demo, featuring an audience member getting it on with fuckzilla and fuckzall (which appears to be a dildofied sawzall), a musical performance played using balloons, pressure sensors and some kegels muscles, and a recipe for a sort of unappetizing cum-like drink. (more...)
by metamanda
10.06.2007