Arse Elektronika 2008

Arse Elektronika 2008 — “Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?” — will take place at CELLspace (San Francisco). September 25 thru 28, 2008.

Susan Mernit and I will be doing a panel:

Avoiding the Emily Gould Effect
Susan Mernit & Viviane

“Oversharing”, sex blogging & erotica. How to successfully manage your online identity, whether you’re pseudonymous or right out there. As the legions of bloggers sharing personal stories of sexuality, erotica and adventure grow and as sex & relationship blogs become big business we hear both stories of bloggers who regret what they’ve shared (Emily Gould) and survived a tawdry outing (Zoe Margolis), and those who’ve parlayed sex & erotica blogging into far more mainstream careers (Rachel Kramer Bussel, Melissa Gira Grant, Violet Blue. How do you manage your online persona so you’re in control of your story? What to do if you get outed?Â Join Viviane, leader of The Sex Carnival, and Susan Mernit, sex and relationships contributing editor at Blogher, in a discussion of sharing, oversharing, and the best ways to put it out there. A hand out of tips for beginners and getting started will also be provided.

Full schedule here.

About AE

Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction

Taking up where the successful conference in autumn 2007 left off, this year’s Arse Elektronika stands under the motto “future” — and the ways in which the present sees itself reflected in it. Maintaining a broadened perspective on technical development and technology while also putting special emphasis on its social implementation, this year’s conference focuses on Science and Social Fiction.

The genre of the “fantastic” is especially well suited to the investigation of the touchy area of sexuality and pornography: actual and assumed developments are frequently depicted positively and approvingly, but just as often with dystopian admonishment. Here the classic, and continuingly valid, themes of modernism represent a clear link between the two aspects: questions of science, research and technologization are of interest, as is the complex surrounding urbanism, artificiality and 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 a thematic overlapping of the exotic, the alienating and, of course, the pornographic/sexual as well.