<nettime-ann> post / porn / politics / symposium 14-15 October, Berlin

Why watch porn?
Why not?
Or why not look for "other" porn?
How theorize sex performances?
How produce other body-technologies?
How celebrate critical pleasures?
How criticise without censorship?
Why affirm the fetish?
Why sexualise alienation?
How intensify the relation between theory & practice?
Why is power sexy?
Why the body a victim of capitalist commodification?
Why not fuck different, instead of idealising a way back to nature?

The term post porn was made famous by the sexworker and performance artist Annie Sprinkle which established a new level of sexual representation: Through identifying with joy, independence and agency in sex-performance, Sprinkle made us think of sex as a queer/feminist counter-pleasure outside the victimising framework of censorship and taboo.
Today, queer theorists like Beatriz Preciado or Marie-Helene Boucier re-evalue the term post-porn to theorise sex in the age of transgender subjectivity and disidentification, drag and cyberspace. When understanding pornography as a central dispositif of late capitalism for the normalisation and disciplination of pleasures and bodies, political ambivalences and counter-strategies are needed to be discussed and mapped out without totalising cultural pessimism.
This symposium, which features theorists, performers, filmmakers, artists and musicians, understands itself as a political intervention into both the heteronormative landscape of commercial porn production and the discourses of the mainstream public which make it impossible to think and practice criticism and pleasure at the same time.
In two conference-days, a performance night and a final party, queer-feminist approaches to porn are discussed, reflected, valued and affirmed in a wide range of contributions between utopia and scepticism.

bruce la bruce. filmmaker. toronto.
maxime cervulle. theorist. paris.
shu lea cheang. artist. paris.
katja diefenbach. theorist. berlin.
lee edelman. theorist. yale.
stephan geene. theorist / filmmaker. berlin.
girlswholikeporno. performers / filmmakers. barcelona.
werner hirsch. performance artist.
katrien jacobs. theorist / artist. hongkong.
marije janssen. theorist. amsterdam.
bubu de la madeleine. performance artist. kyoto.
matteo pasquinelli. curator / critic. london.
rhythm king & her friends. musicians. berlin.
elizabeth stephens. artist. san francisco.
annie sprinkle. artist. san francisco.
terre thaemlitz. musician / artist. kawasaki
todd verow. filmmaker. new york.
william wheeler. performance artist. berlin / mississipi.