Shu Lea Cheang, a Japanese adult film maker, has revolutionized porn with her Sci-Fi erotic film, I.K.U. The premise of the film is that the GENOM Corporation, in the business of digital desire, has produced a variety of products to enhance the XXX Generation.
The biggest project of the Corporation is Reiko. Reiko is an I.K.U. Runner. Her job is not to love people, but to have sex with them. Upon orgasm, Reiko collects the data of the individuals' pleasure to return to I.K.U. Coders who put the information into Chips for sale to the sex consumer. In this sense, the women aren't human, therefore it is not sex work, but merely an administered, corporate research devise.
In a 2001 interview, Cheang comments on how I.K.U. makes reference to the future of sex and desire where technology aids us in "de-coding chemistry." She refers to one such device already in existence, the Nokia Sex Tracer. The Sex Tracer has your profile information and beeps you if someone with your similar interests is within close range. Though this is not exactly to the extent of orgasms in pill form as Cheang presents, we are on our way. Characters in the film take these orgasmic pills, displacing the body from pleasure. However, in a sort of resistant commentary, Cheang rejects this idea as the characters make it clear that the real deal is better, and actually needed to form the memories that will power their pill popping orgasm.
Cheang is also in an interesting bind because of Japanese obscenity law. Cheang creates and edits her film in sly and artistic ways to show sex without showing everything. To the point of almost being nauseating, Cheang's crazy camera angle, graphics, and jolting movement is a visual obstacle course.
However, Cheang also reveals how her camera work is a deliberate attempt "to reclaim the body, and the body parts of women." She shot a lot of genitals, particularly women's, "at angles that force you to look at them."
Although Cheang is clearly coming from a feminist standpoint, she has still been criticized by other feminists who have said "there were too many penis 'symbols' in the film." This leads to the next interesting factor of the film; when the I.K.U. runner retrieves data from her partner, she does so by inserting her fist and arm, which conveniently turn in to a phallic penis type of machine, into the vagina of the female, or anus of the male partner. Thus, critics have said that the penis/phallus is still the focus of the film, as in mainstream pornography.
But is that the case? What does it mean to give the woman the phallus in this sense? With some discussion, it is evident that the women cyborgs in this film are empowered and take on the phallus with new meaning. Cheang retorts that "the film is actually trying to deconstruct 'the big dick'... while claiming the pussy to be the center of the matrix." Indeed, once the information is stored, it is retrieved through the Runner's "pussy."
Libidoc and Dr. Jacobs, "Interview with Shu Lea Cheang," Libi-doc: Journeys in the Performance of Sex Art, Ljubljana, Maska, 2005, 37-54.
The biggest project of the Corporation is Reiko. Reiko is an I.K.U. Runner. Her job is not to love people, but to have sex with them. Upon orgasm, Reiko collects the data of the individuals' pleasure to return to I.K.U. Coders who put the information into Chips for sale to the sex consumer. In this sense, the women aren't human, therefore it is not sex work, but merely an administered, corporate research devise.
In a 2001 interview, Cheang comments on how I.K.U. makes reference to the future of sex and desire where technology aids us in "de-coding chemistry." She refers to one such device already in existence, the Nokia Sex Tracer. The Sex Tracer has your profile information and beeps you if someone with your similar interests is within close range. Though this is not exactly to the extent of orgasms in pill form as Cheang presents, we are on our way. Characters in the film take these orgasmic pills, displacing the body from pleasure. However, in a sort of resistant commentary, Cheang rejects this idea as the characters make it clear that the real deal is better, and actually needed to form the memories that will power their pill popping orgasm.
Cheang is also in an interesting bind because of Japanese obscenity law. Cheang creates and edits her film in sly and artistic ways to show sex without showing everything. To the point of almost being nauseating, Cheang's crazy camera angle, graphics, and jolting movement is a visual obstacle course.
However, Cheang also reveals how her camera work is a deliberate attempt "to reclaim the body, and the body parts of women." She shot a lot of genitals, particularly women's, "at angles that force you to look at them."
Although Cheang is clearly coming from a feminist standpoint, she has still been criticized by other feminists who have said "there were too many penis 'symbols' in the film." This leads to the next interesting factor of the film; when the I.K.U. runner retrieves data from her partner, she does so by inserting her fist and arm, which conveniently turn in to a phallic penis type of machine, into the vagina of the female, or anus of the male partner. Thus, critics have said that the penis/phallus is still the focus of the film, as in mainstream pornography.
But is that the case? What does it mean to give the woman the phallus in this sense? With some discussion, it is evident that the women cyborgs in this film are empowered and take on the phallus with new meaning. Cheang retorts that "the film is actually trying to deconstruct 'the big dick'... while claiming the pussy to be the center of the matrix." Indeed, once the information is stored, it is retrieved through the Runner's "pussy."
Libidoc and Dr. Jacobs, "Interview with Shu Lea Cheang," Libi-doc: Journeys in the Performance of Sex Art, Ljubljana, Maska, 2005, 37-54.
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