Arse Elektronika 2008 is fast approaching! This year, Monochrom's conference on sex and technology focuses on Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction. The conference takes place at CellSpace in San Francisco, September 25-28.

The organizers have published a full schedule of the 3 day conference, plus the 2007 Anthology and Prixxx Arse Toy Innovation Award Party. Prices are as follows:

• Opening night ticket + free drink: US$ 8
• All 3 day conference pass (including opening night ticket): US$ 40
• Single day conference ticket: US$ 20

You know, after helping out on the Moaning Lisa, and at least answering questions for many other installation artists doing works on sex, gender, and tech, I really can't get away with a post title like that without sounding like a complete hypocrite, but, well, that's never stopped me before! So, off we go into the wild world of crazy art that's crazy.

Let's start with Cyberskin by Joan Healy. Sure, you've heard of cyberskin before, it's a term used for a sort of plastic that makes toys feel like the skin of a dead body after a few days in a lukewarm bath. Why do I know this? Science. Anyways, this interface is gonna have Apple eating their multitouch hearts out...

So yeah. Looks like a bunch of people drawing on a multitouch pad, a simple sort of fingerpainting interface that shows up on the screen in front of them. The pad itself is supposed to have a warm, soft, fleshy feel that adds to the bond between people and machines. Which it does.

BECAUSE IT'S A (WO)MAN, BABY. Or, well, her back, at least.

Yup, that's Joan herself in the box, bent over and presenting her lower back as the touch pad. As people do their multitouchythingy on her, she relays the motion to a real touchpad.

My brain is currently fighting a war between "creepy" and "awesome" right now. It's bloody, too. You can see more of Joan's work at her website, which you'll get to if you click the thing you're reading right now.

On to picture number two...

Sweet living jesus fuck, I feel like I should just name this image "the internet" and stop writing altogether, because, well, it's just over, man. It's just over.

This is the "Virtual Transgender Suit", made by Mark Owen, the same guy that did the completely awesome Avatar Machine suit a while back. Accord to Regine, who can still describe this stuff without massive giggling and has my eternal respect for that talent,

(it) replicates the aesthetics of the typical virtual female form and catapults them within a real world context.

Yeah. That's certainly what it does, yup.

via neural.it and we make money not art, two blogs that still make my rss reader a lovely place to view the world from.

So I'm totally like, sitting here look at the back of the Maxbotix EZ-1 to make sure I have the pin-outs correct, as I was gonna use it as a test sensor for the kite. Mount it on the tail, and like, have the red LEDs flicker as range changed from near to far. Cutesy rocket engine simulation.

So, anyways, here's what it looks like.

So yeah... Starin'... starin'... Pins are correct... Wait, what pin is '1st'... Hey... is that a Fis.... SWEET FUCKING JESUS, IT'S JESUS.

So yeah, there's a 1st, cross, and fish on this sensor. I totally was not fucking expecting that. Funny thing is, I borrowed this sensor from Matt Ganucheau during the Moaning Lisa project. Moaning Lisa ended up staying at the Kink.com Porn Palace/Dungeon after AE, and as far as I know, is still there. There's been rumors that it was one of the most fucked on/in/around objects at the dungeon for a while.

So right now, at the Kink.com dungeon, there's a mannequin with 1st-fish-cross sensor eyes that has seen more carnal acts than anyone can dream of.

Dude.

Ok, first off, the new stuff. The WiibratorLink developers have been nice enough to send me more information on the product.

Here's the presentation they gave on it, which, while in German, is still pretty, um, language-agnosticly obvious about the usage and interaction models:

And, some facts...

• Update: The OIOO add-on has a vibration motor in it, due to the fact that the feedback control for the motor in the Wiimote itself is simply on/off.
• The product's name, OIOO, is the combination of the names for the male and female parts. The male portion (the round hole part) is named 00, and the female portion (the pokey part) 01, referring to both the chromosome identification and 0/1 because it's a digital toy.
• Interaction happens through the digital pad, the two buttons and the accelerometer. There are two modes, Private and Link.
• For what I'm guessing is Private Mode, the B-Button generates "Power Vibration", while the A-Button sets it to normal vibration with the digital control (directional pad) allowing for speed control.
• Link mode I believe is demoed in the video, where one controller is used to simulate motion while the other vibrates. This relates to the main research goal of the project, translating actual human movement into sexual communication.
• With the multiple open source libraries available for the Wiimote, internet communication (Telewiildonics?) and other controls should be quickly and easily doable.

So, yeah, the wii dildo is actually gonna happen. Now, it's not the first time anyone has had this idea, but it's the first time it hasn't been vaporware as a completely hardware and software solution. Here's a quick timeline of wiimote sex happenings:

• September 2005: Wii and Wiimote announced. Webcomics think it'll be used for sex. I think otherwise.
• December 2006: I am proved wrong the first time by the Wiibrator Python Script, linking the wiimote and the Rez Trancevibrator using the accelerometer to translate motion to vibration.

• January 2007: The wiildo.com domain is bought, and subsequently squatted upon, leaving those of us that would've totally bought it and squatted on it kicking ourselves. Crappy image placeholder is still all that exists there today

• August 2007: South American tech sites pick up new of the Ciipote, an erotic wiimote add-on by "Tsumino Tsatsi", a Japanese company that I can't find any info on otherwise. No news about this on American gaming/tech sites. For shame, America (which I guess includes me, oops). (Thanks to the comment thread on No Puedo Creer for this tip)

• June 2008: Many gaming websites completely lose their shit because someone makes a 'wiibrator' program with less functionality than what we had in 2006. Get with the fucking times, people.

• July 2008: The OIOO comes around, and we all lose our shit (Seriously, the linkage that got was insane)

That's everything I'm aware for the moment, at least.

WiibratorLink

There are posts on here in which I let the pictures speak for themselves. This is one of them.

All I'm going to say is that this is a project happening at Bauhaus University Weimar, and yes, that's a wiimote, and... Just... wow. Yeah.

The prophecies of a million video game webcomics, realized.

Update: It's actually called the "WiibratorLink". Not to be confused with the Wiildo.

Update 2:: Talked to the people that made it a bit more, apparently there's no interference with the Bluetooth communications whatsoever. They'll also have more information available later in the week, will make another post here (and probably do a roundup of all things sex and wii) when that happens.