Die Wiener Semantic Web Company hat sich ein knappes Jahr lang mit dem ZukunftsWeb auseinandergesetzt und versucht, ein paar aktuelle Entwicklungen zu beschreiben. Währendessen findet von 1. bis 3. September die isemantics Konferenz in Wien statt. Bei Monochrom erscheint ein essayistisches Buch zu Stichworten wie Web Of Data, Open Government Data ...

Arse Elektronika: Sex, Tech, and the Future of Screw-It-Yourself

We may not forget that mankind is a sexual and tool-using species.

From the depiction of a vulva in a cave painting to the newest Internet porno, technology and sexuality have always been closely linked. New technologies are quick to appeal to pornography consumers, and thus these customers represent a profitable market segment for the suppliers of new products and services.

Currently, all factors show that high-tech developments owe a great deal of their success to the need for further sexual stimulation. One could cite the example provided by the science fiction concept of a full-body interface designed to produce sexual stimulation. But it isn’t science fiction anymore. It's DIY.

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?

Wir wollen im Rahmen der diesjährigen Arse Elektronika fünfminütige Kurztalks über Sex und Kunst präsentieren.

An evening of five minute lightning talks about technosexual art and comic culture. We call the evening "Microtalks on Sex/Tech/Art" -- and if you want to present your favorite art piece or present your own work: send us an email!

The Roboexotica 2010 Festival dates are set for December 2nd-5th in Vienna. If you're into robots, and are of legal drinking age, this is one event absolutely not to be missed.

Here's how the Roboexotica organization website positions this totally unique annual celebration featuring robots contributing to improving life in a meaningful way...

Cheers! Roboexotica will take place in Vienna December 2-5, 2010. Until recently, no attempts had been made to publicly discuss the role of cocktail robotics as an index for the integration of technological innovations into the human Lebenswelt, or to document the increasing occurrence of radical hedonism in man-machine communication. Roboexotica is an attempt to fill this vacuum. It is the first and, inevitably, the leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics world-wide. A micro mechanical change of paradigm in the age of borderless capital. Alan Turing would doubtless test this out.