| For Real
an exploration of today's fetish for reality, in porn
and elsewhere
topics class description (download PDF)
 In
the past 10 years there has been a revolution in the way sexual
imagery is produced and distributed. Along with the changes brought
to the porno industry by the switch to digital technology, there
has been  another
even bigger change. Thanks to cheap digital photography (and now
video) and the power of the Internet, a new form of self expression
has come about - amateur pornography freely exchanged online.
These images are radically different from traditional pornography,
and in fact some of them challenge the concept of pornography
itself. I call it Realcore, because one of its aims is to portray
reality in a believable manner. Realcore is brave, very intimate,
often stunning and creative; it's an endless catalogue of human
desires, portrayed in a very honest and straightforward way. It
seems that, once empowered to make their own porno, the users-
instead of imitating mainstream imagery - developed a totally
different style, and created online communities made up of users
that become producers. This, along with the familiarity with the
digital tools, suggests an idea: that today amateur pornographers
are at the forefront of the digital revolution and, much as it's
happening in other forms of expressions (like writing and blogs,
for example), they are writing the grammar of a new way to self
expression - in a very delicate and special area such as sexuality.
 The
class will explore many aspects of the rise of today's fascination
for reality:
- Pre 1960es: when pornography, before the rise of the hardcore
industry, was basically a vocational affair - and a cottage
industry.
- Lifestyles: in many cases an important element of realcore
imagery, they were an essential component in the early days
of porno. From the "dancers" of naughty barbershop
postcards or later the 50es strippers (who were attractive not
only because they showed skin, but mostly because of their supposedly
fascinating lifestyle), to "lifestyle cinema" of the
40/50/60es ("what really happens at beatnik parties?").
- Exotica, the dream lands (Paris, Sweden, The East). Colonial
pornography and the first wave of "reality movies"
of the 60es (some italian, like the infamous Mondo series).
The National Geographic as a source of nudes.
- Gossip, crime news, true stories, diaries.
We'll also look up digital pornography from its inception (in
the pre-internet era of the BBS) to the advent of digital photography
(1994/'97) to today's Web 2.0, and will cover a brief history
of digital sexual communities. We will also deal with the (very
contemporary) relationship between resolution and credibility
(in terms of reality) of an image. Part of the purpose of this
seminar is to explore the dichotomy between fiction and non fiction,
real and fake (or unreal), hot and cold media, and the act of
documenting vs creating.
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