August 31, 2008
Arse Elektronika 2008 - Registration Open
Arse Elektronika 2008 is fast approaching! This year, Monochrom's conference on sex and technology focuses on Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction. The conference takes place at CellSpace in San Francisco, September 25-28.
The organizers have published a full schedule of the 3 day conference, plus the 2007 Anthology and Prixxx Arse Toy Innovation Award Party. Prices are as follows:
- Opening night ticket + free drink: US$ 8
- All 3 day conference pass (including opening night ticket): US$ 40
- Single day conference ticket: US$ 20
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August 17, 2008
Oh, you wacky, wacky artists.
You know, after helping out on the Moaning Lisa, and at least answering questions for many other installation artists doing works on sex, gender, and tech, I really can't get away with a post title like that without sounding like a complete hypocrite, but, well, that's never stopped me before! So, off we go into the wild world of crazy art that's crazy.
Let's start with Cyberskin by Joan Healy. Sure, you've heard of cyberskin before, it's a term used for a sort of plastic that makes toys feel like the skin of a dead body after a few days in a lukewarm bath. Why do I know this? Science. Anyways, this interface is gonna have Apple eating their multitouch hearts out...
2 Stage Transfer Drawing(advancing to a future state) from Joan Healy on Vimeo.
So yeah. Looks like a bunch of people drawing on a multitouch pad, a simple sort of fingerpainting interface that shows up on the screen in front of them. The pad itself is supposed to have a warm, soft, fleshy feel that adds to the bond between people and machines. Which it does.
BECAUSE IT'S A (WO)MAN, BABY. Or, well, her back, at least.
Yup, that's Joan herself in the box, bent over and presenting her lower back as the touch pad. As people do their multitouchythingy on her, she relays the motion to a real touchpad.
My brain is currently fighting a war between "creepy" and "awesome" right now. It's bloody, too. You can see more of Joan's work at her website, which you'll get to if you click the thing you're reading right now.
On to picture number two...
Sweet living jesus fuck, I feel like I should just name this image "the internet" and stop writing altogether, because, well, it's just over, man. It's just over.
This is the "Virtual Transgender Suit", made by Mark Owen, the same guy that did the completely awesome Avatar Machine suit a while back. Accord to Regine, who can still describe this stuff without massive giggling and has my eternal respect for that talent,
[it] replicates the aesthetics of the typical virtual female form and catapults them within a real world context.
Yeah. That's certainly what it does, yup.
via neural.it and we make money not art, two blogs that still make my rss reader a lovely place to view the world from.
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