This is the first of a three-part series adapted from my talk at Arse Elektronika: "Sex and Computation in a Material World"

I struggled a lot with the decision of how personal to make this. I've always had a hard time with the boundary between personal and professional passions, and I've always tried to be reflective and forthright about where I'm coming from when I make things or write things. I suspect that, when discussing and designing for sex, it's especially difficult to draw those lines, because our own relationship with sex, our specific turn-ons and fascinations, can seem so very particular, and yet so important to how we think about, design, make and market sexual technologies.

In this feature I'm focusing on what happened when I got a Sinulator. How commercially available teledildonics platforms seem to be operating on more of a porn-viewing model than an interactive sex-between-two-people model. I want to discuss some of the less-than-appealing aspects of bringing a really visually-based erotic model into the bedroom, at least for me and I think a lot of women. Audacia Ray has pointed out that other than sex workers, women are not exactly, um, jumping on the remote-controlled sex bandwagon, and it's probably worth asking ourselves why this is. (more...)

Sexualinteractions.org is a place to bring together people who use, build, appropriate, research, critique, write about or think about these sexual technologies. Some of us make a living doing this stuff, some of us approach it from an academic research perspective, and some of us do it in our spare time out of love.

So if you have something to say, say it! If you're working on some project that you're really proud of, here's a place to pimp it. The forum is great for such things. Even better, contact us at admin [at] sexualinteractions.org and propose a feature. We're currently also looking for reviews (of books, videos, toys, etc.), how-to's, event announcements, and useful resources that are worth sharing. (more...)