[Air-l] query from Paulina Borsook

[david silver]

Folks,

here is an inquiry from Paulina Borsook.  please direct all responses to
Paulina <loris at well.com>

I [Paulina Borsook] am currently writing a book entitled "wired for sex/an
illustrated guide to sex, technology, and the way we live now" = wfs).

WFS is
- attempting to be fun/interesting
- covers things like Viagra, the latest in sex toys of all kinds (materials
science and electronics miniaturzation hit the world of vibrators!),
webcams, electric play, porn on the net, real dolls, technology-enhanced
mate-hunting (not just match.com, but cellphones are now in on the deal. and
there are all those websites where patrons rate the favors and talents of
sexworkers!), etc
- consists of approx 200 images + approx 30k words of text
- is about NOW (now being defined as 1998 - 2004)
- is explicit but not arousing i.e. will reproduce MRIs of people having sex
(for real!) as well as MRIs of the brain and genitals during arousal, but
will not show pubic hair, nipples, sex toys in -use-, etc

WFS is NOT
- pornographic/a user guide/a consumer guide
- about the future
- about reproductive technology, genetic engineering, plastic surgery,
gender reassignment
- a sociopolitical/historical cultural critique/analysis
- an compendium of bdsm
- academic/abstract, a la donna haraway or sadie plant.

i suppose my interest in querying you and folks on yr lists (air and yr
personal one) are

a) i can't seem to find -any- good stats on sex on the net --- whether
amount of pornographic email, # of binaries exchanged, x-rated websites,
hotchat, dating sites, whatever. am not expecting to be definitive, but it
would nice to have some numbers about -something-

b) am always looking for good art. this perhaps has been the most
challenging part of the project: finding interesting images that arent
x-rated/cheesy/bdsm (this is not, after all, the big book of bdsm)/look like
an ad for a laptop. have found all kinds of fun archival sexy mood art of
all, but am always looking for additional stuff, interesting screen shots,
etc

c) though the book is already outlined in detail, and 60 percent researched.
and 20 percent written, am always open to new fun ideas. frinstance, at the
moment am tracking down a couple of german artists who did a porn karoake
stunt at various nightclubs in germany last yr...

d) am interested in talking to folks who have been thinking about sex +
tech, but as this is a -coffeetable- book, nor a book about the future, nor
a sociopolitical exegisis of anything, needs to be someone who can talk in a
way that is accessible to the mainstream...

thanx in advance for yr help

and oh, here's the author bio the publisher is sending around:

AUTHOR:
Paulina Borsook's journalism, essays, and humor pieces have appeared in
Mother Jones, The New York Times, Salon.com, and numerous other magazines
and Web sties. Her novella about email adultery, "Love Over the Wires", was
the first fiction published in Wired magazine.

***

david silver
http://www.theseptemberproject.org/