Arse Elektronica, San Francisco, Sept. 25-28

Arse Elektronika 2008

Do Androids Sleep With Electric Sheep?

Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction

Taking up where the successful conference in autumn 2007 left off, thisyear's Arse Elektronika stands under the motto "future" -- and the waysin which the present sees itself reflected in it. Maintaining abroadened perspective on technical development and technology whilealso putting special emphasis on its social implementation, this year'sconference focuses on Science and Social Fiction.

Thegenre of the "fantastic" is especially well suited to the investigationof the touchy area of sexuality and pornography: actual and assumeddevelopments are frequently depicted positively and approvingly, butjust as often with dystopian admonishment. Here the classic, andcontinuingly valid, themes of modernism represent a clear link betweenthe two aspects: questions of science, research and technologizationare of interest, as is the complex surrounding urbanism, artificialityand control (or the loss of control). Depictions of the future,irregardless of the form they take, always address the present as well.Imaginations of the fantastic and the nightmarish give rise to athematic overlapping of the exotic, the alienating and, of course, thepornographic/sexual as well.

Johannes Grenzfurthner/monochrom (Conference organizer)

http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/schedule.html