Arse Elektronika 2010 / September 30 thru October 3!

Latest information and updates

Virtual law and Sex

Like so many things, virtual law started with sex. Specifically, the first known legal case originating in a virtual world was over a bed designed for rolls in the virtual hay.

Eros vs. Volkov Catteneo was not unlike business dustups that happen in the real world every day. One person created something and sold it, and another person allegedly copied it and sold cheap knockoffs.

The only thing novel about this case is that the item in question was a piece of furniture made entirely of computer code, and it was bought and sold by 3-D avatars in Second Life, a virtual world run by San Francisco's Linden Lab.

Second Life user Kevin Alderman of Lutz, Fla., created the very interactive bed, which enabled avatars to engage in a range of activities (cuddling, more). But when another user started selling copies, Alderman hired real-life lawyer Francis Taney, who tracked down the real person behind the bed-copying avatar and secured a consent judgment from Florida's U.S. District Court ordering him to quit.
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Arse Elektronika Anthology: We are looking for illustrations

We are currently editing our Arse Elektronika anthology "Do Androids Sleep With Electric Sheep?" (about sex and science fiction). The book is being published by RE/Search in cooperation with monochrom.

We are still looking for illustrations and graphic works (b/w or greyscale) that deal with the general theme of the publication. Please send us an email if you think you have some interesting stuff...

Deadline: May 10, 2009.






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Arse Elektronika 2010. September 30 thru October 3, 2010 in San Francisco, USA.

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?