Sex Machines - Inspiration for Art | Timothy Archibald |
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Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews by Timothy Archibald explores a vibrant American subculture where sexual adventure, technological ingenuity, and heartfelt personal visions intersect. Through his documentary images and original interviews, San Francisco photographer Timothy Archibald unearths the world of contemporary sex machine enthusiasts. Provocative and full of surprises, this exhibition features twenty-one of Archibald's photographs, selections from his interviews, and an array of extraordinary devices.
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"Marlon Reynolds' Prototype Machine" (Timothy Archibald) |
Given the explosion in popularity of doing-it-yourself, it's surprising that so few hacks and mods are devoted to the greatest form of doing it ever: sex. But the exhibition of Timothy Archibald's Sex Machines at the Sex Museum shows that there is an active community of sex toy hobbyists. The dildonics on display are not intended as artwork. The function comes first, and any design that results is coincidental. Most — but not all — lack the ironic message that pervades so much modern artwork. As a result, these inventions resemble a kind of folk art sculpted from the Home Depot palette. Archibald's photographs capture the juxtaposition of the hard-edged machines in the comforting and familiar settings where they are built and used. What surprised Archibald most, though, was that the inventors — an entirely male bunch — "aren t sexual fringe characters or people who answer the door wearing a leather zipper mask," he says. "These people go to PTA meetings, mow the lawn, eat good food. |
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| Interview by Noah Robischon |
| GIZMODO: How did you become interested in DIY sex machines? |
| TA:
I had always been interested in independent inventors, people who were
not associated with a university or a commercial enterprise. While
doing the research for a photo story on that, I came across a listserv
where people who were inventors of sex machines were
sharing tips and talking about problems they had overcome with their
inventions. And they also had photographs of their machines on that
site that they shared with each other. When I saw those, it was this
combination of human phallus with stuff that looks like it came out of
a high school shop class. All mechanical, hard components. The project
that evolved out of that was a look at the people who are making the
machines. The machines are fascinating, but the people s stories are
what made it cohesive, more of a human experience. |
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"Kristy With The Orgasmo" (Timothy Archibald) |
GIZMODO: Is the fetish in the making of the machine or the machine itself?
TA:
These are tinkerers, people who like to mess with all things
mechanical. And they have a sense of creative invention — they are
proud of these things when they create them. But also they think about
sex a lot and this is what resulted from that combination. It s not
just a sculptural thing. They are making it for a purpose. A number of
them are married, they are making it to try and introduce something to
their wives. Some may be using it to attract women — or they think it
might attract women. And for some of them it s a business. But they are
not part of a scene, like a sexual scene. It s more that they got the
idea independently that this is something they wanted to make, they
wanted to have. |
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Ivana With The Thrill Hammer" (Timothy Archibald) |
GIZMODO: The Thrill Hammer is one of the most sculptural machines in the show. What is the function behind that design?
TA: It is an internet controlled sex machine that was originally built by the inventor to allow people to use the
machine on a woman from the comfort of their own home. People could
pay, log on and control this machine as a woman sat in the machine —
and they would be affecting the sex machine upon her through their
mouse and keyboard. It truly did work. The time I hooked up with the
inventor he was installing it at a legal brothel in Nevada. The
whorehouse had licensed this machine from him for that very purpose. It
was also set up so that it could film the person that the machine was
being used upon, and it had professional lighting installed on it so
that the video feed would look like they wanted it to look. Pretty
high-tech gadget. |
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| He went on to make another machine that was based on
a couch that he saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was
influenced by popular culture. His desire was to make something that
visually said something. He liked this science fiction-y look to it
that it has, that was intentional. In the book and the show there are
probably two or three machines that design was a big part of it.
Different inventors try to implement things in their own way, but
oftentimes it was very primitive or simple, and the function would come
first. But Thrill Hammer was heavily designed. As was the Monkey Rocker. |
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James and Allisa's Second Machine" (Timothy Archibald) |
GIZMODO: Several of the machines are built into toolboxes. And the name is right there on the side — Craftsman, Huskette. There must be some kind of message in that.
TA:
With the Huskette and even the Craftsman, these guys thought it was
funny. They appreciated the inherent humor in having this logo that we
ve all seen being twisted and used for another purpose. They knew it
would be funny. They were self-aware.
It was also an affordable,
neat and clean way to contain the moving parts that are necessary, and
could seem a little dangerous in a venture like this. There are hard
edges and a flywheel. The inventors needed to find a way to encase
these things so that the sex machine would be more user friendly. If there
was something over the counter that they could buy in bulk and then
modify to their own ends, that would be the solution to that kind of
thing. Also, it allows the buyer to hide the thing. You got a toolbox
under your bed no one is going to look twice at that — well, maybe they
will look twice but not three times. |
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"Ruiin and Tuesday" (Timothy Archibald) |
GIZMODO: The coffin seems very intentionally self-aware. And it doesn't
quite fit with the other machines. What's the story there?
TA:
They called that thing the Holy Fuck. That was meant to look like a
little coffin, and had all the details of the coffin. They were trying
to create a piece of art there that had this function. But they were
young, they were these gothic kids. And I wanted them in the project
for that reason. But their thing wouldn t really fall under the guise
of folk art because it s intentional. They had the neat idea to make it
in a tiny coffin and give it a funny name. It reflects them, like any
piece of art.
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To me all these things are art and they tell us
something about the creators and the times we live in. But some of them
are more self-conscious than others.Some of the more harsh looking
machines end up being portraits of the inventor and all their concerns.
Something like Thrill Hammer or Holy Fuck, they are trying to make
something cool and it reflects their design taste. But it s not a
vision into their brain like some of the other ones are.
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"Carl Adjusting the Boom"
(Timothy Archibald) |
GIZMODO:
There are a couple of sex machines — Marlon Rogers' Prototype and Carl
Adjusting the boom — that remind me a bit of David Cronenberg's film
Dead Ringers.
TA: I ve never seen that movie. I m dying to see
it. I ve never even seen a picture from it. Someone else did bring that
up. The more raw the machine, the more it is truly a vision into some
of these guys brains. Everything is exposed — you see how it works and
because of the phallus you can t help but think it reflects their view
of sexuality, or their own sexuality, or how sexuality should look.
The
thing to keep in mind is that all of these machines, as different as
they seem, as outlandish as some are, they all do the same thing. And
that is simply go in and out. |
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"Jessie In Steven's Living Room" (Timothy Archibald) |
GIZMODO:
What is the purpose of your work — is it documentary or is there a
message you are imparting to the viewer about these machines?
TA: It started out as a documentary project. I saw these fucking machines and thought: who would make these things? The machines are visually
fascinating but they must be made by people who could not relate to
women, or could not relate to other people. And the lesson I learned is
that these people are just like me. These aren’t sexual fringe
characters or people who answer the door wearing a leather zipper mask.
These people go to PTA meetings, mow the lawn, eat good food. And how
that broke my stereotype was real interesting, and made me want to
pursue the people behind these things. Maybe the surprise of the normal
versus the abnormal. Throughout working on the project we were always
saying it s not sexuality it s sociology. You can t deny the sexuality
of the work. It tells us a bit about men, women, how they relate to
each other, how they see themselves. |
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| Virtual exhibition at Sex Museum, New York >> |
| Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews - from Amazon.co.uk >> |