So there is high quality video of the opening of Arse Elektronika, specifically the encounter with fuckzilla and the fucks-all. Note for those watching porn at work: turn down your volume, she's a screamer.

And kink.com's video blog of the conference.

Check out this Youtube video for the Polaroid Swinger, one of the great sources of DIY porn of the 60s, with its catchy and suggestive jingle, "Meet the Swinger". Thanks to tgeller for this. Interestingly, this camera says 'yes' when there is enough light to take a photo. According to wikipedia, older versions said 'no' too, but the ultra-popular swinger only says yes... a camera that is always willing. :)

Recommended reading from the conference

Web:

Brains and Machines, Sunny Bains blog on haptics and other futuristic hardware, brainsmachines
Cyberdyke.net, lesbian pr0n and sex toy reviews
kink.com, awesome hosts of the conference
monochrom.at (in english), monochrom_atom
netporn-l, a netporn discussion mailing list
Open Dildonics
sexualinteractions.org, Amanda Williams sex forum/blog
Sharingissexy.org, free, open source answer to youporn, redtube, shufuni, etc, also a conference attendees' MFA project
Kyle Machulis' Slashdong, slashdong
Techsploitation, Annalee Newitz's blog, techspl0itati0n
vaginapagina
and of course fleshbot sex blog, fleshbot, and Violet Blue's tinynibbles, tinynibbles

Books:

The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet Spectatorship by Michele White
Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America by Laura Kipnis
Naked on the Internet by Audacia Ray
NASA/Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America by Constance Pauley
The Science of Orgasm by Barry R. Komisaruk, Carlos Beyer-Flores, and Beverly Whipple
The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture by Walter Kendrick and Steve Renick
The Technology of Orgasm by Rachel Maines
Visual and Other Pleasures by Laura Mulvey (including her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema")

mycroftxxx recommends Pat Cadigan's Synners, for its prediction of war porn and food porn as outlined in Mark Dery's keynote speech

CNET on the Moaning Lisa. Lisa's leg had a USB port, and I conjectured with the real Lisa, Lisa Thalheim of the CCC, whether that was erotic to anyone else. I imagined a fetish for pictures of feet, legs, vulvas, penises, breasts or other eroticized body parts photoshopped to include a USB port or similar. I remember the Logitech(?) ad a while back that played up the clitoral appearance of a mousewheel, but so far my cursory searches have been unable to find any USB or other I/O port porn, making this a possible violation of Rule 34 (along with gyesika's suggestion of lesbian wookie porn). Lisa said they are thinking of having a game at the next Chaos Communication Congress where they make teams websearch under a time limit to prove or disprove Rule 34 based on audience suggestions for outré fetishes.

The last panel I attended was Amanda Williams presentation on "Sex and Computation in a Material World." Williams is a grad student in tech design.
( Amanda's presentation )

On Day 3 I deliberately slept through the first few hours, which included a screening of a documentary on sexmachines and a hour long discussion after. I did not anticipate being able to get up early(ish) for me and then stay awake in a dark movie screening for two hours. Since I was skipping the screening I also skipped the discussion. Also, I left after dinner break to attend Burning Man decompression. The evenings programs were more porn focused than tech or sex focused, and all the panels will be available for online viewing within a few weeks to a month. Here are tyrsalvia's notes on a panel I missed but would have liked to see. I look forward to seeing the video!

Annalee Newitz spoke on 'a futurist's history of sexual technology'.
( and a fascinating discussion it was! )

After the Kyle Machulis (qdot)'s presentation on alternate sexual interfaces, Violet Blue spoke on online sexual privacy.
( Violet on sexual privacy, aka Ceiling Cat hates your porn )
( Tina Lorenz on tech in porn )
( tyrsalvia on sex ed )

I've had a great time in San Francisco, but I think I am feeling a bit homesick today. I doubt I would be, if it weren't for the series of technological catastrophes -- tgeller pointed out tech is the ongoing theme of my troubles this visit. First I broke my wifi, then lost my cell phone (see previous post), and then today noticed my glasses were even more messed up than usual (in truth they have been wearing out for a while), seeming really frail. I hoped if I didn't mess around with them I could make it back to Texas with them... but they spontaneously broke while I was getting some cereal this afternoon. The way they broke I can't even do the uber-dorky duct tape thing (which might actually be amusing when I attend the Arse Elektronika afterparty tonight).

Do I have money to replace these things? Yes, in theory. But when I deposited my moneys into Bank of America at the end of last month, they spontaneously decided to hold all but $100 until Oct 17th. I'd been fighting with them on the phone to release my money, as I consider that totally unacceptable behavior for a bank, but that also requires my phone to continue (after days of calling I finally got them to admit they COULD release my funds, just wouldn't and was due back a call from upper management).

So while I have enough moneys to get back to B/CS and keep myself fed until then, I don't have money to replace my glasses, or get a new phone. No glasses pretty much crimps my sight-seeing plans for the day, as I don't feel like going to look at the blur that is haight-ashbury.

Yep this is basically just a lot of whining. Tomorrow night sometime I will hopefully be home. And tonight I am still going to the Arse afterparty...

More Wired on Arse Elektronika: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/10/moanin-and-maki.html

Kyle Machulis is the awesome operator of Slashdong, which covers future sexual technology and teledildonics. This is my notes on his talk.
( Kyle's talk )

This is an edited version of my notes for thevoluptuaries. I've removed a bits only of interest to those of us in the group. I took a LOT of notes yesterday so more will follow.

Wired's summation of the first night: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/10/so-who-wants-to.html -- this article is interesting since it reveals that Binx, the girl who got fucked by the Fucksall and Fuckzilla robot, had never used a vibrator before. I find it somewhat fascinating that an attendee of a conference on sexual technology would never have used that seemingly most basic of sexual toys before. Enjoy the photos. Photos accompanying article may be triggery for those whose families were killed in the robot uprising of 1985.
( pornotopia inside )

It looks like I will have a place to stay in San Francisco thanks to the generous offer of tgeller (via gentle_gamer, thanks Joyce!). Yesterday I booked my plane tickets to the city. In order to get cheap airfare and fly at reasonable (to me) times of day, I ended up extending my trip a little.

I will be in San Francisco from late Wednesday, Oct 3 until the afternoon of Tuesday, October 9. From Friday night through all of Sunday I will be attending Arse Elektronika 2007. However, Thursday through Friday afternoon as well as Monday are free for me (though I will be trying to sleep off the con on Monday).

if you live in san francisco... please comment here if you want to hang out, get some coffee, chat, smoke me out, whatever.
if you know someone in san francisco I should meet, comment put us in touch!
if you've been to san francisco (wearing flowers in your hair?) please suggest some stuff I might like to do. I will be staying in the Castro but have no problem travelling on public transportation.

Thanks!

It appears I will be attending Arse Elektronika 2007 as research for my writing, as well as on behalf of my coauthor kiki39 and eposia. The conference will be held at the PornPalace, which is located here.

I'm scraping my moneys (and those of my cowriters) together to make this happen, so I definitely don't have the cash to stay in a SF hotel. I also would much rather stay with a local friend or friend of a friend, and potentially see the sights a little after the conference. I am hoping to fly in Oct 5 in time for the opening of the conference, but might possibly be arriving on Oct 4 if airfare is better. I will be leaving somewhere around the 9th, using the 8th to rest and (ideally) see some of the city.

I'd like to find a couch or spare bed (or whatever) to crash on. Close to the Porn Palace would be cool, but I am not afraid to use public transportation in the event your place is further away -- I'd rather spend time on a bus than try to scrape together $ for a hotel or whatever.

So... anybody in San Francisco want to put up a traveling Kit-sune for a few days? Please let me know ASAP as I need to buy airfare while it's still cheapish.