Cyber sexpert fails to please

5 Feb 2008 | 10:12 GMT

By Nick Booth

THE CYBER SEX possibilities of the mobile phone have yet to be fully exploited, says Dr Trudy Barber, a cybersex expert at Portsmouth University.

Her latest project, Creative Digital Practice and Theory Mash-up, is, apparently, an interdisciplinary (phwooar!) approach to exploring, creating and innovating 'New Media' and digital content.

This Friday, Barber will deliver a speech on “How Cybersex Stimulates New Technologies” at a Sexual Pleasures conference hosted by the college on behalf of the Royal Society of Medicine. Barber argues sexual inclinations result in some innovative uses of technology.

The Sun has already run a piece on this, which was obviously cut and paste straight from the press release.

Your correspondent, still none the wiser, and headed for Barcelona on Friday, called Dr Barber directly for a cheap thrill. Er, sorry, to get the real story.

Dr Barber, author of a previous paper entitled Deviation As a Key to Innovation: Understanding the Culture of the Future told The INQ that sex and innovation go hand in hand. Er, yeah. I think I knew that. Open the Littlewoods catalogue at the right page, and my imagination runs riot. I don’t need a doctor to tell me that. I can please myself without even getting a hard disk. (I said disk!)

But Dr Barber’s theory of ‘sexual modders’ goes deeper than that. “People can now buy things online, like medical equipment, connect it to their PC and have fun with it,” she explains.

I’m not sure how, but I don’t want to admit how naïve I am. Is there some kind of online enema scene going on in cyber space? Are there cyber doctors out there willing to fulfil your fantasies? But only after you’ve been patronised by the Cyber Doctor’s receptionist, who for some reason thinks she’s entitled to act like she spent seven years at Kings College Hospital, cutting up cadavers.

I want to know more, but Dr Barber isn’t giving it to me.

In Second Life, a lot of people act out their fantasies by changing sex, she tells me. I knew that. We’ve all seen the movie poster: “In Cyberspace, nobody can hear you’re a screaming queen!”

Some people dress like cartoon characters. Some like to change species (there’s a sect called The Furries, apparently). So far, so humdrum. In technology terms, nothing’s really filled my slot yet. Finally, I persuade Dr Barber to talk digital with me. This is one of her hot buttons. Digital art, digital narratives and the creation of digital content are all specialist areas.

“With mobile phones, you can obviously have chat,” she reveals. Well, I’ll be jiggered! Who’d have thought it? I think I’ll investigate that myself at Mobile World Congress. Did I satisfy your need for sexed up mobile content stories? No, well sorry, that happens sometimes. Next!

Anyway, there’s more untitillating titillation here. And here. µ

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