Imagine our experience of seeking, building and nurturing connections as we move through life as a part of a complex system. This system affects our experiences and in turn our actions cause changes to the system. Now, let’s bring in other pieces of the puzzle – on the technological side, we have communications technology, internet, cables and signals, and on the human side we have politics, individual experiences, curiosity, expression, gender and sexuality and community. As we add or remove more pieces in this multi-layered system it becomes clearer that the human experience of technology is not only interconnected but also an embodied one.
EROTICS (short for exploratory research on ICT’s and sexuality) was imagined as a medium to explore – primarily through research – the relationships between expression and exploration of sexuality, identity, desire, play, resistance and community and the internet.
The ideas that resulted in shaping EROTICS, in 2008 are now on a path to becoming and actively building the medium into a space – space to hold and facilitate knowledge and network building efforts on sexuality, rights and technology.
Sexual rights activists use the internet in innovative ways to advocate for the rights of marginalised communities, disseminate information on sexual and reproductive health and rights, campaign against violence and discrimination, and support their community building and outreach.
The EROTICS network has worked to bridge the gap between various LGBTQI, ,sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), freedom of expression movements by building the capacity of sexual rights activists to engage in debates on internet governance policy, as well as building the awareness of internet rights organisations to include sexual rights in their advocacy.
Currently available information from EROTICS and its network developed over more than a decade is available as multi-country researches, global monitoring surveys, issue papers and other resources that can be accessed here.
