Re: <nettime> The Matrix Rules [Movies without sex, the sex without]

[k.jacobs@beatmail.com (Katrien Jacobs)]

MOVIES WITHOUT SEX, THE SEX WITHOUT

I would like to briefly discuss the views of dr. future about 'virtual
reality' films and 'art films' within the category of 'virtual reality'
films which s/he believes are entering a revival period in the wake of new
media technologies. I have been thinking over and over again how such an
optimistic attitude can be shared with the new masses of spectators. It is
one thing to regularly distribute optimistic writings through nettime, but
to distribute and exhibit as well as financially support art films such as
David Cronenberg's 'eXistenZ' through digital networks such as the
Internet, would be a different matter altogether. 

In the analysis of current virtual reality films, dr.future refers to Guy
Debord and denounces the hegemony of Hollywood, but overall finds that
movies such as 'The Matrix' accommodate viewers (working class +
intelligentsia) in their search for network societies which allow for
dissidence, dissonance and transgressive thinking. Reading through these
ideas, I specifically wonder how we can think about the role of eroticism
and transgressive sexuality in virtual reality movies and computer games. 
The mode of liminality was popular among theorists in the 60s and 70s when
they argued for different methods of game-playing to enter and subvert the
spectacle regimes within (post)modern societies. But how is the eroticism
of game-playing presented to audiences today within the vastly growing
market of VR movies? 

In 'The Matrix', the main character is gently lured into a hackers sect of
the matrix by a female counterpartner who wears a tight fetish suit. 
Although we can see that her love and care for the hero rescue him from
major doubts, fears and insecurities about entering the sect, we do not
get to see how this love translates into sexuality, we see just a kiss. If
only her fetish suit would be more than just a fashion statement, we could
start to see how the hackers sects are controlled by exciteable figures
and game-designers showing signs of sexual, ethnic and other differences.
But desire between the hero and heroine is not explored in this movie any
further than a kiss. When the kiss finally happens, it is as if we are
experiencing an unexpectedly obscene moment within a Walt Disney
animation.  It is too bad that the movie 'The Matrix', which is totally
devoid of sexuality and eroticism, did not highlight the Victorian
kiss-scene in a more self-referential manner to indicate, for instance,
that the fetish mistress does not desire bodily contact let alone
intercourse with the hero, and certainly not in times of revolution and
change.

The theme of sexual excitement in times of revolution was previously
explored by Jean Genet in his play 'The Balcony', where a character Roger
becomes a guerilla leader but can only maintain his emotional sanity if he
regularly visits a bordello to embody the dominant half of an s/m couple.
He is not very good at representing this role and ends up castrating
himself in an act of despair - a short play-within-the-play which
infuriates the owner of the dungeon as it stains her carpets with blood.

This is not to say that I cannot imagine a more optimistic scenario for
the cyber resistance fighter, but at least Genet gives us a glimpse of the
complex interplay between political and sexual agency in times of
political upheaval. Not so for the Wachowski brothers and their creation
of a sex-less hero who cannot manage to play games within the game. When
we start inundating the masses with movies such as 'The Matrix' aided by
new media technologies, how can we start arguing for graphic displays of
sexuality within these new forms of cinema?

We thus need the support of optimistic thinkers such as dr. future. 

The movie 'eXistenZ' is radically different from 'The Matrix' in that it
casts resistants who desire the destruction of powerful factions within
the computer games industry, yet undergo a serious amount of virtual
game-playing in which they explore the nature of the beast. It is entirely
unclear in this movie which of the two preoccupations - exploring games or
networking their destruction - would be a more worthy cause of action. 
Through various forms of identity reversal and role-play, the characters
are allowed to embody shifting political identities within vying sects. 
Cronenberg establishes this goal by constantly interrupting their
transparent desires and by showcasing unknown types of eroticism. To start
with, Cronenberg casts the female revolutionary as an intriguing yet pushy
individual who will simply command the male partner to make sexual
transgressions. An exciting development for the new art cinema. These
sexual exploits are not necessary for her to maintain balance within the
sect, but rather to help her get totally lost and swirl around in sects
and other virtual domains which blend different games, bodies, human
bodies and animal organs, animals and machines. The machines in
Cronenberg's matrix are made from animal organs, the human becomes
undefined species connected to both.  Rather than frigidly denouncing such
new assemblages and presenting the matrix as sterile and polished computer
graphics (Wachowski bros and many other brothers) the Cronenberg bodies
come alive to the viewer through their awkward designs and by acting out
the pleasures and pains of merging with undefined species. This is what I
call sexuality.

The human being is an undefined entity connected to animals and machines
by means of a bio-port. The bio-port enables us to connect to games, but
is an unstable device in that it may be affected with viruses which may
cause physical distress and may also prevent us players from knowing the
boundaries of the game. If you get fitted with a bio-port and enter a
game, your bio-port within the game will let you enter another game within
the game, and so forth. In Cronenberg's masterpiece, the revolutionary
couple sticks a new lead into the bio-port immediately after they have
entered the first game. The second lead is shaped like a tender chicken
lung which encourages love-making as much as becoming-heroine and hero in
the game. 

The bio-port is a sexual organ which is not shaped liked a penis, nor a
vagina, but more like a telephone jack made of jello. However, if the
bio-port gets infected, it acts more like a female organ, or a ignored
section of the body which starts begging for attention. The extensions of
man, you can put your fingers in it or your tongue, but not your penis nor
dildo. 

I agree with Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze and McKenzie Wark that new
technologies should be viewed as unstable devices in their perpetual
reorganisation of the human senses. In order for spectators to accept this
point, virtual reality movies will have to speak to their senses. 

Katrien Jacobs




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