CyberSM, cybersex and 25 years of VR

Abstract

2018 will mark the 25th anniversary of cyberSM, a series of media arts projects incorrectly heralded as the first fully-functional cyber-sex systems. These projects made frequent appearances in newspapers, magazines and television programmes in the mid 1990s, and spurred numerous debates on body futures. The cyberSM projects were developed by Stahl Stenslie and Kirk Woolford as a response to Virtual Reality and New Media hype of the early 90s. Nearly 25 years later, we have seen a resurgence of virtual reality hype. However, this time around, there is little debate about dis-embodiement or body futures. On the contrary, there has been a full take up of VR technologies for “adult” films, and discussions of embodiment focus primarily on the reduction of motion sickness while exploring virtual environments.

This paper will (re) present the cyberSM projects and examine the original intentions of their creators, and the reception of these media arts projects by mainstream media. It will then compare-and-contrast the current wave of VR technologies with the VR of 1993, and offer suggestions as to how their cultures have shifted in the intervening 25 years.