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Profoundly shocking Ars Electronica
by William Osborne
(pdf,
28 kb)
There's no doubt that "Next Sex: Sex in the Age of Procreative
Superfluousness" - the latest edition of Ars Electronica,
Europe's largest festival for digital media and the arts - was
calculated to shock. The festival has focused on bio-technology
for the last several years, but this time took things a step further,
demonstrably a step too far, by centering on the aesthetic use
of eugenics.
The goal of the festival, held earlier this month in Linz, Austria,
was to "scrutinize the contours of a society in which human
beings are genetically configured - not simply born."[1]
Eugenics has a long history. It has, de facto, become a part of
society, particularly through the use of biological engineering,
according to Ars Electronica director Gerfried Stocker.[2]
Anyone even vaguely familiar with the 20th century, let alone
with new developments in medicine and bio-technology, can see
that.
But since presentations opposing eugenics and biological determinism
were not included in the festival, the potential for debate was,
to say the least, restrained.[3]
Indeed, Ars Electronica embraces a future where humans will be
"fabricated," and where sex will be "relieved of
its functional indispensability for reproduction." This will
"reorder ... the battle of the sexes" and the "moral
steering mechanisms" of society, according to the festival
program.[4]
IRONIES ABOUND
Historical ironies abound. After the Anschluss of 1938, Hitler
planned to destroy the national identity of Austria by reducing
Vienna to provincial status and transforming his hometown of Linz
into one of the largest cultural centers of Europe, a grand city
reflecting the newly created eugenic purity of the Aryan race.
(In nearby Mauthausen concentration camp, 100,000 people were
murdered as part of Hitler's "purification" of Europe.)
A half-century later, the Linz-based Ars Electronica embraces
eugenics, biological engineering, and the use of living tissue
for the creation of artworks. And one key festival participant
notes, "Even rape can be considered an art-creational strategy."[5]
The festivals views reflect a Darwinist philosophy. "Complex
tools and technologies are an integral part of our evolutionary
fitness. Genes that are not able to cope with this reality will
not survive the next millennium," says a recent festival
press release. Meanwhile, the festivals discussions of genetic
engineering, its confrontation of sexual taboos, and its masculinism
were all couched in what many saw as an emphatic misogyny.
MAJOR EVENTS
The misogony is illustrated by some of this years major festival
events:
+ Evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill, author of the controversial
book _A Natural History of Rape_, presented a lecture asserting
that rape is a natural part of male sexuality, and that women
should restrict their behavior to avoid this "natural"
phenomenon.[6]
+ Media artist and prophet of cyber-sex Stahl Stenslie presented
a lecture in which he said, "Even rape can be considered
as an art-creational strategy." This statement, also printed
in his contribution to the festivals 415-page program book, is
not conditioned or qualified; it is meant literally.[7]
+ The festivals most publicized event was entitled "Sperm
Race." A "container laboratory" was placed in a
central location of Linz where men could go to produce sperm samples.
The "quality" of the sperm was then tested using "computer-assisted
sperm analysis." At the end of each day, a winner was announced.
Women were allowed to go to the container and place bets on their
"favorites."[8]
+ Nobuya Unno, a member of the Faculty of Medicine at the University
of Tokyo, presented a lecture on artificial placentas (extra-uterine
fetal incubation.) His presentation included grotesque photos
of goats being incubated in artificial placentas.[9]
+ Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston,
presented a project entitled "Tissue Culture & Art(ificial)
Wombs." Their goal is to use tissue culture and tissue engineering
as a medium for artistic expression. They have created what they
call "semi-living" dolls.[10]
'NATURALNESS' OF RAPE
Thornhills biological views of rape were consistent with most
of the festivals other presentations. His "naturalization"
of sexual violence easily followed along the lines of Stahl Stenslies
notion that "rape can be considered an art-creational strategy."
Stenslie, known for his "cyber-s/m" experimentation,
studied at the Academy for Media Arts in Cologne. His work has
centered around tele- tactile communications. In a project called
"cyberSM," he constructed leather bodysuits with built
in "sensors" and "effectators" that allow
people to engage in forms of sexual activity via their computers
modem.
His work is somewhat dated. Cyber-sex was a theme among media
artists and theoreticians in the 80s, but by 1993 it was already
declared "tired" by publications such as Wired Magazine.
Stenslie, however, remains undeterred. By embracing eugenics and
bio-engineering, he hopes to make his ideas more plausible and
provocative. In an e-mail article published in 1996 as part of
a symposium on mimesis, he wrote, "The Web is full of intentions,
but where can one feel the essential, hard core experience? Why
shouldnt the memes and digital metaphors boot up the body in ecstasy?"[11]
In the same article he explained that digital technology and
biological engineering will transform humans into self-evolving
cyborgs - though, of course, he doesn't say how.
SPECULATIVE HYPE
Such speculation is commonly referred to as "hype"
among computer specialists, but Stenslie insists this combination
of biological and virtual reality, "opens up the thrilling
possibility of a mind independent of the biology of bodies. [
...] Disguised in delicately coded flesh," humans will "experience
the primal scream of digispace." After such revelations,
Stenslie asks taunting questions, "What is there to be afraid
of? Because the nature of the beast is bizarre and monstrous,
alien and terrifying?"
Ars Electronicas reactionary postmodernism, which defines the
new man as a perfectly engineered, hard-core cyborg of transcendant,
male creativity, is not especially new. Eighty years ago the Italian
futurists worshiped power, masculinism, speed, eugenics and technology
as they moved toward Benito Mussolini, their hard-core Nietzschian
superman. Hitler followed and created the largest eugenics program
in the history of humanity.
Such considerations answer Stenslies question about what there
is to fear.
If Ars Electronica represents the future of the body and gender,
then women will face a continuation of one of patriarchy's most
common and violent narratives: domination, rape and dismemberment.
Its an age-old myth, but the festivals curators remain oblivious
to it meanings.[12]
(Being a woman is a biological curse; the womb represents a chaotic
force of nature which must be tamed; woman is a receptacle for
the "natural" desire of rape, she is a half-living doll
to be played with, she carries a burden of womanhood that can
only be lifted by dismembering and re-engineering her body to
effect a leap to men's self- appointed status of creative autonomy).
EMBRACING EUGENICS
If the festival's curators had included gender studies scholars
in the program, the narratives that inform the festival's misogyny
could have been examined, but in the parochial atmosphere of Austria,
such fields of thought play little role in the arts.[13]
Ars Electronica is able to embrace eugenics, because historic
ideologies related to biological determinism and cultural nationalism
still influence many members of Austrian society. The Vienna Philharmonic
provides an interesting example and corollary. The orchestra forbids
membership to women and people of color, because they believe
gender and ethnic uniformity give the ensemble aesthetic superiority
- a sort of low- tech bio-engineering.[14]
Rightist Jorg Haider, head of the Freedom Party, exploited these
forms of chauvinism in his rise to political power.
Additional Reading:
http://www.nettime.org/nettime.w3archive/200009/msg00001.html
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/8667/1.html
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/8658/1.html
http://www.prairie.at/002/sexpo/002_sexpo_start.php3
http://www.t0.or.at/~tissa/polemika/ars.html
http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?1871&r
A shorter version of this article appeared at http://msnbc.com/news/465919.asp.
William Osborne is an American composer and arts activist living
in Germany.
+ + + list of all links
http://kultur.aec.at/festival2000/timetable/index.asp http://216.3.77.242/membersonly/sciences/thornhill_body.html
http://www.echonyc.com/~sueb/Review/review.html
http://csf.colorado.edu/pen-l/2000I/msg02450.html
http://www.aec.at/nextsex/spermrace
http://www.aec.at/meme/symp/panel/msg00061.html
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/8667/1.html
http://www.osborne-conant.org/prophets.htm
http://www.nettime.org/nettime.w3archive/200009/msg00001.html
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/8667/1.html
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/konf/8658/1.html
http://www.prairie.at/002/sexpo/002_sexpo_start.php3
http://www.t0.or.at/~tissa/polemika/ars.html
http://rhizome.org/object.rhiz?1871&r
http://msnbc.com/news/465919.asp
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