Of Intercourse and Intracourse—Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere

An Anthology of the 2009 Arse Elektronika colloquium, which takes place annually in San Francisco. The Arse event is an exploration of future, current, and past technology as it is used in regards to erotic human relations. The 2009 Arse Elektronika was centered around biotechnology and body modification. Besides lively interviews and fiery panel discussions, Of Intercourse and Intracourse includes personal essays and anecdotes, project descriptions the reader can actually build, research bibliographies, and lots of information on historical and speculative theories and practices. Interesting, entertaining, and mentally stimulating, its wide-reaching topics, are well thought-out and thought-provoking in turn.

Some of the subjects and projects included: trans-species and extraterrestrial pornography, tantric sex, ?joydick” and ?pussypad” project instructions, polyamory + technology, W.S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, latex, intimacy, biometrics, and the future of sex ?just to name a few. This is an amusing and mind-expanding foray into technology with a purpose. Of Intercourse and Intracourse is replete with fun and funny ways to use electronics for pleasure and self-control, and keeping the multitude of unusual ideas afloat, there is plenty of information on the psychologies behind them. The participant-contributors, besides being ?far-out” thinkers in their respective fields, are also deep thinkers on the state of humanity now and in decades to come. These are refreshingly un-self-conscious viewpoints, brainstorming, and theoretical fantasies on the topic of sex in the 21st century and beyond.

Features, essays and projects by Eleanor Saitta, R.U. Sirius, Jack Sargeant, Annalee Newitz, Katrien Jacobs, Christian Heller, Bonni Rambatan, Kyle Machulis, Saul Albert, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Violet Blue, Carol Queen, Douglas Spink, Rose White, Rainer Prohaska, Thomas Ballhausen, Uncle Abdul, Elle Mehrmand (Echolalia Azalee), Micha Cardenas (Azdel Slade), Ani Niow, Monika Kribusz, Noah Weinstein, Randy Sarafan, Allen Stein, Kim De Vries, Pepper Mint, Robert Glashuettnencr, Jonathon Keats.

Johannes Grenzfurthner, Gunther Friesinger, and Daniel Fabry are members of monochrom, an art-technology-philosophy collective having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993