art & politics

September 30 and October 1, 2005
De Badcuyp, Amsterdam
Organized by the Institute of Network Cultures, Katrien Jacobs and Matteo Pasquinelli

************************************************************************************************************************************* The Art and Politics of Netporn is the first major international conference on netporn criticism. It will present multiple perspectives on our growing immersion in pornographic web-based media. A second aim of the conference is to discuss the potential of art and critical research in times of heightened information surveillance, filtering and censorship. The selected research presentations and art projects regard netporn as complex networks, with impact and growth, just as industries and/or indie media operations. Conference presenters will address the 'schizo' climate of hype and censorship, focusing on the ethics and aesthetics of digital media environments and (female and male) activities such as blogging, webcamming, chatting, p2p porn, live journals, confession boards, mailing lists and zines.

A growing number of theoretical and historical porn studies have appeared over the last decades, yet few have focused on porn within digital media environments. Based on the many submissions we have received from scholars and artists, we have come up with five conference themes. Each of the themes will be represented by a mixture of scholarly research and art/media/industry presentations. Keynote speakers will include Mark Dery, Mikita Brottman, and Susanna Paasonen who will analyze cultural obsessions with the 'sexual grotesque,' 'phantom pedophilia' and the political discourses of porn spam. A larger open debate will be hosted by Albert Benschop on the various facets of information filtering and censorship.

The conference speaks to the concerns of a wider public. Netporn and its critics, the pro-porn/anti-porn wars, fluctuating economic business strategies and nation-state politics, Internet governance models and filtering devices --all these aspects of netporn economy and history are affecting our everyday ways of sensing and understanding media and sexuality. We will open the doors to views by those interested in art, scholarship, technology, industry, and debate as 'refreshment'.

Katrien Jacobs
the institute of network cultures, amsterdam

readings

-----------------------------------------------
Supporting Amsterdam's tourist industry no doubt.

Not a subject worthy of criticism otherwise.

tags