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Sex> My Boys Can
Swim!
My Boys Can
Swim!
The Great
Sperm Race
By Leonardo
Calcagno
Published October 2001
Ever heard the expression "My boys
can swim?" Well at the ARS Electronic
Festival in Vienna, they got down to the
real deal. On September 3rd and
4th, visitors had the opportunity
to submit a semen sample (participants were
encouraged to jerk off to porn and ejaculate
into their condom) and donate the spunk
to a sperm race. Each sperm unit was assigned
a numerical code and entered to the race,
while the lucky donor could observe his
sperm cells trough penetrative radio microscope.
The sperm were then digitally photographed
(enlarged 1,000x) at the finish line. Female
visitors were encouraged to bet and wager
on the sperm race..
This race was a way to promote the breaking
of social taboos in regard to reproductive
technology used widely in the world and
a direct assault on how we look at our sexuality
in the future. "Facilitating an encounter
with science means also seeing the entire
reality of this science and not just pretty
pictures of it…only this way can people
make contact with science and find a way
to approach it," said Reinhard Nestelbacher,
a molecular biologist at the University
of Salzburg.
The electronic and digital artist community
that staged the race was also using it as
a platform on ethical and moral messages
for people to think about the future of
sex.
"Giving the opportunity to the people
to see up close their own sperm…you
make them think about their human potential
as creator and destroyer in the era of technology.
Internet and pornography sites have changed
the way to acquire sex and masturbate,"
explained M. Teresa Pujol, a digital biologist
at the University of Barcelona. "Don’t
be shocked about masturbation; it's a normal
sexual function and everybody does it. The
sex industry is the one that makes more
money in the net and there's millions of
people using sexual products. The foundation
of life is sex, and the digitalization of
life as we know is changing everything and
everyone."
Madonna and Jodie Foster use it and many
other well-known personalities, but still
with the so-called sexual openness of our
society, it seems sex is still a disturbing
subject.
The ARS Next Sex platform gave us a great
festival of our sexual future, by examining
human and post human sexuality in the age
of cloning, in vitro and genetic engineering.
Other highlights from the festival:
Do we need humans, anymore?
The decoding of the human genome, cloning
of human embryos in Great Britain and the
field of genetic engineering have all changed
the way we look at human sexuality and reproduction.
For instance, Nobuya Unno, a researcher
at the University of Tokyo’s Department
of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has developed
an artificial womb capable of incubating
goat fetuses. This method has been seen
by many scientists as a big scary step to
eliminate the mother's nine-month pregnancy
term. The repercussions of this technology
are enormous. Think about it.
By the way, a 31-year-old Austrian named
Lemon was ranked first in the races.
Leonardo
Calcagno,
well know writer
in Montreal Canada. He's been writing for
local Canadian, Americano and European e-zines
and zines in French, Spanish and English
for almost 5 years. More known to get hate
letters from right-wing housewives and to
get into fights with promoters who don't
let him interview bands! You will mostly
see him eating tofu dogs and drinking Guinness
with his laptop in Montreal writing another
article about politics, music and sex. Graduated
with a bachelor degree in International
Politics with a minor on international law...
his parents are still wondering why he took
on a life of sex writer! Tattooed with Che,
Husker Du and ARA! Played chino-Hispanic
punk on Les Kalisses D'immigrant, Trash
Blues on Les Tetes Reduites and now stoner
rock on Your Sister ! He contributes on
Freezerbox.com, Kerozen, Indymedia.org,
Stooky.com, Eroticandy.com, Biotech Montreal
Action, QuebecTel, Zona de Obra and other
zines!
For more of Leonardo's
work, please visit www.montrealnightguide.com
and www.montrealconfidential.com
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