CarnalNation

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The Arse Elektronika Conference, in which geeks assemble from all over the world to talk about futuristic meldings of sex with technology, kicked off its fourth annual meeting at Chez Poulet in San Francisco last night by first taking a look into the past. In the keynote address, titled "All Along the SexTower: Sex on Stage in America," noted sex writer Susie Bright talked about many of the different spaces where she's watched or performed sex in public during her life.

The first stage that Bright talked about was actually a second-hand account, and was the most low-tech kind of stage possible. In the seventies, one of Bright's teachers, whom she had considered one of the straightest people imaginable, introduced the class to her female lover, a former dancer at Paris's legendary Crazy Horse burlesque theater. The woman's first time dancing had been far from the Crazy Horse and far from Paris, though; it was in a truck bed in Texas for a group of field hands in the 1950s.

Under the hot Texas sun, one of the other dancers had a large tub of ice that she'd crawl into between dances, aggressively chasing away anyone else who tried to use it. At first, this may have seemed like nothing more than an example of cast-iron bitchiness, but as it turned out, her reason for the tub of ice went beyond keeping cool under the sun: she had shot her breasts full of paraffin to increase their size. However, in the heat, the paraffin began to melt, and her breasts would lose their shape; between dances, she'd cool off in the ice so that the paraffin would solidify again.

Starting out the weekend with a story about a DIY boob job with paraffin and dancing on a makeshift stage is a perfect way to set up all the themes of Arse Elektronika. Not only do the attendees have a fascination with both sex and technology, but they also almost universally eschew solutions that can be bought prepackaged at the local big box store. Inventiveness is much more important than being able to buy the coolest toys, and both sex and tech are as much art as science to the people who attend Arse Elektronika. Furthermore, this year's Arse is titled "Space Racy," and is specifically meant to look at how communities and buildings either accomodate sexuality, or can be made to do so.

From the truck bed in Texas, Susie Bright moved on to her own experiences, mostly in San Francisco during the eighties. Some of the names that she mentioned are still familiar to modern-day residents of San Francisco. The Market Street Cinema, for instance, is still there, its edifice somewhat run down (and suffering from a bad reputation as strip clubs go) but also lacking the one thing that Susie Bright remembers as distinguishing it the most: a long runway extending from the stage. "It had this grandeur because of the runway," Bright said. "You could do the whole Gypsy Rose Lee thing. You could sashay." The Sutter Street Theatre (apparently somewhat different from the place using that name now) was distinguished by a giant white shag bed on the stage. Bright mischievously pointed to a bed at the back of the room where several of the audience members were sprawled. "A little bit like that one," she said. "Do you think you could simulate cunnilingus so we can all see what it was like?" The people on the bed grinned back shyly, but didn't oblige.

The one drawback to the sex shows in San Francisco was that it was illegal to display erections onstage. So, while you could see lots of girl-girl action in the clubs, what Bright called the "man-woman love act," was strictly verboten. For that, she ultimately wound up taking a trip to New York City's classic strip club Show World (still securely located on 8th Avenue for all your porn-buying needs). It was apparently a disappointing experience. Bright remembers that the record played for the "man woman love act" was by Prince—but it had a skip in it, "Which I found disrespectful." Regardless of Show World's level of respect for Prince, though, the performance between the man and the woman was sluggish, slow, and lacking energy. It was like watching pandas, Bright said. Afterward, though, the performers were able to explain it simply and directly: "Seven shows a day," one of them said, "You have to go slow."

Susie Bright had many more stories, of many more places, too many to list here. But in all, it was a great way to start of Arse Elektronika 2010, and a perfect illustration of how the spaces that we build serve us or don't serve us for sex. And even being all about the past, it served as a great launch pad for a weekend dedicated to the future of sex. We'll be there all weekend, watching to see what happens next. If you want to track the event on Twitter, keep an eye on the #arse2010 tag.