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Monday, October 8, 2007

The Moaning Lisa: Arthacking the wii with 200 womens’ orgasms

filed under: Sex Hacks, We Make Art Not Sex by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Created by Matt Ganucheau, as presented at Arse Elektronika, orchestrated by Vienna-based art/tech rabblerousers monochrom (you remember them, from the Future of Sex “Sex Hacks” salon), video by sex hacker supreme, qDot.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

When Porn Confessional Gets Off YouTube

filed under: We Make Art Not Sex by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

thanatos

And I’ll never forget my first exposure to this video, “thanatos,” when it was screened at the American Film Institute as part of Pixelodeon, the first festival of online video. There’s nothing like watching video meant for the web in a theatre full of strangers. Even more so when it’s playing a game of, “is she, or isn’t she?” before an audience you can hear and feel the response from.

For instance, you just know something is off from her opening greeting, “Hey, Tubers.” (And not just because the video is hosted at blip.)

The artist is Victoria Lucas — not her birthname, but chosen “so not even daddy can find me,” and in a nod to Sylvia Plath. Bear in mind that shifting of identities as you watch. And don’t be shocked if your hand finds its way to your throat without you even knowing why.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

“Philosophy in the Boudoir” Redux

filed under: Retrosexual, We Make Art Not Sex by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Artist Tomer Hanuka has been commissioned to create the cover art for a new Penguin Classics edition of the Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Boudoir, Or, The Immoral Mentors.

On his process:

Since the cover included a back cover and two flaps there was lots of space to build a rounded atmosphere. the back cover is essentially the ‘later’ of the front, the front flap showcases an evil looking chandelier and the back flap has an excited horse. hoping i could get away with something slightly outrages I had the back flap and back cover create a suggestive bestiality situation that was quickly cleaned up when the horse got circumcised to the client’s request…

A gorgeously huge version here.

(via the inimitable sexblo.gs)

Monday, August 27, 2007

“Fille Publique”: Pole Dancing in the Financial District

filed under: We Make Art Not Sex by Melissa Gira | Leave a Comment

Video artist Linda M. Ford confronts the “working girl” in her site-specific projections and performances, putting peep show girls on museums and pole dancers in front of Charles Schwab:

From her statement:

Fille Publique*
Dressed in a business suit, I performed “striptease” pole tricks almost directly underneath the Charles Schwab marquee that continually flashes the “market news”. At the end of this lunchtime hour, I sold Polaroid’s of the performance to passersby.

* defined by the 19th century discourse which positioned the femme, or private, family woman in opposition to the fille, any woman in the public sphere; available for sexual use (prostitute).

Thursday, July 12, 2007

The New “Lady Chatterley”: Francophilia + “Natural” Sex = Crazy Good Reviews

filed under: We Make Art Not Sex by Melissa Gira | 2 Comments

There’s a new Lady Chatterely in town, and this time, she’s translated:

The New York Times, in their Video Minute (which I can’t embed here, and yes, I’m registering complaint as I blog with the “relevant parties”) lavishes praise on how “remarkable” the film is just for having been translated into French from its English source, giving the film a “newness, an aliveness, a freshness.” Sex, is, after all, fusty musty dusty and funky. Granted, that clean outdoorsy sex Lawrence is all about needs no translation.

Really, I don’t mean to overly hate on the Times. It’s just that my morning blogging habits have me reading the paper version at a cafe before cracking my laptop. They even offered up this little gem, from their review, “Parlez-Vous Lawrence? Love, Sex and Fresh Air,” which itself is no longer available without logging in: “Every frame of the film seems alive with a sensuality that is both wild and intelligent.”

I’m not free of a little French fetish, either. The French just seem to get away with approaching sex with a more “evolved” aesthetic, of suffusing sex with intelligence, of eroticizing the theory of sex itself. D. H. Lawrence himself was credited with doing to sex in the English language what the French masters had been getting away with for centuries. (Anais Nin, who was Lawrence’s first literary defender, was also given these honors. She may have been born in France, but America is where her sensual voice took root.)

Lady Chatterley is hitting American release this month, after having netted five Cesar awards in France. Showtimes here.

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