by Marije Janssen

This year’s Impakt Festival featured two netporn couch.clubs that were organized by the INC as a preview for our second netporn conference in 2007.
The first presentation by Sergio Messina dealt with the topic of Realcore, a recent development in online porn. Realcore is about the attraction of reality in sexuality. By using new technologies, individual users are creating a revolution in pornography. It’s not about the objective presentation of lust anymore, but about the subjective experience of this lust and the representation of it in communities online.
In the second couch.club Show-n-Tell and Sergio Messina discussed DIY porn. Show-n-Tell talked about her book ‘Webaffairs’. ‘Webaffairs’ is an artistic review of her experiences in the world of webcam erotica. She started out as a voyeur, but later on became a participant in this digital erotic world. A world in which individual users performed their sexual desires in front of the camera or in chats.
Both couch.clubs were a success. Many people found their way to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht and actively participated in the discussions during the couch.clubs and afterwards.
Sergio Messina will give another presentation about Realcore at the Transito Festival in Amsterdam, in the Melkweg at October 27.

LINKS:
Impakt Festival
Sergio Messina Realcore homepage
WebAffairs Book by Show-n-tell
INC Art & Politics of Netporn website
Report of the Realcore presentation at Waag Society by Spunk
A stream of the Realcore presentation by Sergio Messino at the Waag on August 23 can be found here.