The future of porn is technologic
The erotic fanzine PC Erotic explores the complex relation between sex and technology
November 6th, 2018
Sex, technology and a female perspective. These are the core elements of PC Erotic, a new erotic fanzine created by artist and model Iris Luz.
The history of porn and erotic magazines has always travelled on parallel tracks. On one side, men who very often in the years of the middle school started to discover their body and its changes through the images of half naked women printed on magazines they would read with their friends, secretly. On the other side, the female issue. Yes because for a very long time the topic of female masturbation, or simply the discovery of the body by young women, was considered a taboo. Maybe because of the catholic heritage, at least in Italy women were considered as angelic figures, without desired or passions, who in the bedroom represented simply a mean for the man to feel pleasure (or to make babies).
Between the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '70s, the women part of the sexual revolution changed everything. Women became finally aware and responsible of their own bodies, both when it comes to take a decision, like the abortion law passed in Italy, both when it comes to sex and the right to feel pleasure. This phenomenon was contemporary to the arrival of a few magazines that testified exactly this change. The magazine Space Rib dealt with the issues of female orgams and masturbation, while a few years later the London-based magazine Skin Two focused mainly on a fetishism made of latex items and mistress ladies, really dominant in the bedroom.
Over the course of the years the porn world, and as a consequence the masturbation, were radically invested and changed by the coming of Internet, which monopolized the (virtual) pleasure industry. You don't need to leave the house to go buy a porn magazine, you just need internet access. Thousands of websites to draw inspiration from, scrolling through thousands of different images. The invasion and the control of technology on basically every aspect of out lives made the artist and model Iris Luz ask herself a question: will we fuck technology or will technology fuck us?
The issue can't be undestimated, and those who just binge-watched the Netflix series Maniac can't but think of the scene where we first meet the character of James Mantleray - played by Justin Theroux - while he's busy masturbating wearing a visor, completely immersed in another world, virtual, technologic, made of invented and almost magical figures.
In the first edition of the erotic fanzine PC Erotic, Luz reflects on the future of sex, and the complex relation between technology and sexuality. "We’re at a very odd point in society where we’re facing a whole new realm of ideas and concepts thanks to technology, but we have no idea how to approach them or lead a coherent discussion about them without instilling fear. Whether you like it or not, technology now more than ever is a physical extension of ourselves. Additionally, I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of the ‘ideal woman’ and beauty as power (whatever concept of beauty that is)."
What distingueshes PC Erotic from all the other erotic publications is its satirical and funny tone of voice, different from overly political, or overtly sexualised porn mags. The magazine challenges the male-dominated concept of pornography: the sexual liberation passes through an ode to the glorious past of porn magazines, while at the same time starting a debate on the future of sex and the technology connected with it. The aesthethic is very much cyber trash, close to the design of early Y2K porn mags.
The cover of the mag, shot by Viktor Naumovski, stars digital sex artist Maria Forqué, photographed as a genderless, extra-limbed airbrushed alien. "Through her work she shows the magnitude and importance of social media in perceived power and representation, and shows an alternative view of beauty that refutes and rebels against any expectations people have put on her. To me, Maria’s identity and nudity symbolise a total liberation from limiting human morality and embrace unconditional self-love." These are the reasons why Luz chose Forqué to grace the cover of the first issue of her publication.
The fanzine, published by Ditto Press, is now available here.