Image via mckibillo’s Wonderfest set.

I’m working on my talk right now, phew. But through my fever I had a lot of fun writing Arse Elektronika 2007: Porn and Tech Conference (”Violet Blue holds hope for the future of sex, despite the musical condoms”). Snip:

This weekend in San Francisco, futurists, tech experts, sexologists, and a who’s-who list of emergent sex and technology experts are lined up for talks and panels at Arse Elektronika 2007, a conference about “pr0n and innovation” — or the intersections of sex and technology. At our local Porn Palace, this first-of-its-kind international meeting of the (very geeky) minds on the subject of sex and tech looks to be both a humorous (ahem) poke at past sci-fi visions of “future sex” and some realistic explorations of technology’s undeniably constant relationship with sex.

Or maybe it’s just what happens when you combine the monkeys with the typewriters. You know, you either get Shakespeare or a monkey humping a keyboard. Likely, both — but I think many of us hope it’s a pleasant combination of the two. Most often, it’s not. For instance, there’s some yummy porn on my iPod right now, but still some scientists feel the need to invent electronic singing condoms. Deep down, I can’t help but think these powers need to be used for good, not evil.

It helps to keep a sense of humor, which is liberally laced throughout Arse Elektronika’s lineup and manifesto. We wanted Barbarella; we got Buffy the Vampire Layer. We hoped for virtual sex; yet we still find ourselves staring at a blank window that says, “buffering.” As humans, we’ve always sexualized our technologies — otherwise, why was Maria from “Metropolis” so damn sexy? — but our fantasies never match up with what we hope the tech will do for us. Meanwhile, there’s a growing debate as to whether porn leads tech innovation or vice-versa — while pundits like myself argue they’re playing in tandem.

When Slate released the first textcast last year (a podcast with scrollable, readable text for the iPod), I rushed to figure out how it was done for my sex-ed Open Source Sex podcast. When I succeeded as the second textcaster, one of Slate’s editors remarked to me in an e-mail that he thought it was funny to see “porn following tech, rather than the other way around.” For someone like myself, who has watched mainstream porn and sex un-savvy inventors fumble around, sometimes with disastrous results, to mix porn and tech to create consumer goods, his reaction was surprising. (Not to mention that I’m not podcasting “porn.”)

Of course there’s porn for your iPhone, but it’s not a chicken or egg question; the iPhone (ahem) came first. But there’s no denying that the VHS tape (remember those?) changed porn for consumers and creators alike; and there’s definitely a causal relationship between new technologies’ (VHS, DVD, Internet) inherent privacies and limited customizability influence and our cultural experience and expressions of ourselves sexually. The widespread perception that porn leads technology is pervasive, but unproven; perhaps the disappointment, hope or fear (!) that this is true is what motivates the meeting of the minds this weekend at Arse Elektronika.

Link.