[hackerspaces] Arse Elektronika 2009: "Of Intercourse and Intracourse"

[das ende der nahrungskette]

monochrom's
ARSE ELEKTRONIKA 2009
"OF INTERCOURSE AND INTRACOURSE"

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Conference, film festival, DIY workshops, performances.

Oct 1-4, 2009. San Francisco.

With talks, machines and performances by Allen 
Stein, R. U. Sirius, Noah Weinstein, Randy 
Sarafan, Uncle Abdul, Jonathon Keats, Ani Niow, 
Jason Scott, Annalee Newitz, Rainer Prohaska, 
Douglas Spink, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Violet Blue, 
Eleanor Saitta, Reesa Brown, Saul Albert, Monika 
Kribusz, Kim De Vries, Pepper Mint, Micha 
Cárdenas, Rose White, Elle Mehrmand and many more...

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Up-to-date info on festival site:
http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/

Tickets:
http://bit.ly/arse2009-tickets

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Scottish SF author Iain Banks created a 
fictitious group-civilisation called "Culture" in 
his eponymous narrative. The vast majority of 
humanoid people in the "Culture" are born with 
greatly altered glands housed within their 
central nervous systems, who secrete - on command 
- mood- and sensory-appreciation-altering 
compounds into the person's bloodstream. 
Additionally many inhabitants have subtly altered 
reproductive organs - and control over the 
associated nerves - to enhance sexual pleasure. 
Ovulation is at will in the female, and a fetus 
up to a certain stage may be re-absorbed, 
aborted, or held at a static point in its 
development; again, as willed. Also, a viral 
change from one sex into the other, is possible. 
And there is a convention that each person should 
give birth to one child in their lives. It may 
sound strange, but Banks states that a society in 
which it is so easy to change sex will rapidly 
find out if it is treating one gender better than 
the other. Pressure for change within society 
would presumably build up until some form of 
sexual equality and hence numerical parity will be established.
Does this set-up sound too futuristic? Too utopian? Too bizarre?

We may not forget that mankind is a sexual and 
tool-using species. And that's why our annual 
conference Arse Elektronika deals with sex, 
technology and the future. As bio-hacking, 
sexually enhanced bodies, genetic utopias and 
plethora of gender have long been the focus of 
literature, science fiction and, increasingly, 
pornography, this year will see us explore the 
possibilities that fictional and authentic bodies 
have to offer. Our world is already way more 
bizarre than our ancestors could have ever 
imagined. But it may not be bizarre enough. 
"Bizarre enough for what?" -- you might ask. 
Bizarre enough to subvert the heterosexist matrix 
that is underlying our world and that we should 
hack and overcome for some quite pressing reasons within the next century.
Don't you think, replicants?

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Festival Schedule:

October 1 (6 PM-midnight): Film festival, opening 
ceremony and Prixxx Arse Elektronika Gala @ Roxie Theater
October 2 (8 PM-midnight): Art, pixels, 
interactive performance @ Center for Sex and Culture
October 3 (11:30 AM-9 PM): Talks and discourse @ PariSoMa
October 3 (after 10 PM): Party and performance night @ Femina Potens Gallery
October 4 (12 noon-10 PM): DIY workshops @ Noisebridge

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Up-to-date info on festival site:
http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/

Tickets:
http://bit.ly/arse2009-tickets