Objectum Sexuals ‘Individuals who identify as Objectum Sexuals experience emotional, romantic and/or sexual feelings towards inanimate objects’68. Matt Meher, is an Objectum Sexual, in love with the ‘North Bridge’ in Sydney69. Erika Labrie (Now Erika Eiffel) is an OS in love with and married to the Eiffel Tower 70 Eija-Riita Eklöf-Mauer is an OS in love with and married to the Berlin Wall 71 Lars Laumann featured Eija-Riita Eklöf-Mauer’s relationship with the Berlin Wall in his film Berlinmuren 2008 in a sensitive and provocative way. Kathy Noble describes it as typical of Laumann’s ‘ongoing project, exploring people and phenomena that exist on the margins of contemporary society’ She recounts how his non-judgemental approach ‘simultaneously draws you in, whilst the extraordinary stories fuel cynicism.’72 These truly are extraordinary stories. Documentaries on OS are easy to find on YouTube with some viewing figures in the hundreds of thousands for what appears to be a fairly niche attraction. Whether you consider Objectum Sexuality to be a legitimised orientation; a delusional fetish; or an autistic interpretation, I think it is fair to say that, the idea of Objectum Sexuality disturbs the boundaries between the human and more-than-human in an unsettling way. For example, here are some YouTube responses to Matt Maher’s video (see Figure. 6): ‘How can you be cynical about love between humans, while claiming that the bridge loves you????...’ Four question marks!!!! ‘I’m sorry but I can’t help but LMAO.. when he tells the bridge to ‘shhhh’’ ‘By your own definition, the bridge does not love you….’73 From what I can see, blurring the boundaries in this way induces Marshall McLuhan’s fear of humans’ role as ‘sex organs for the machine world’74. Or Levy’s example of the football as a ‘quasi-object…which can galvanise an entire stadium of spectators into what Levy
68
Julia Simner, Hughes & Sagiv, Objectum Sexuality: A sexual orientation linked with autism and synaesthesia, <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56449-0>[accessed 10 June 2020]. 69 Concrete Romance: Objectum-Sexuality on YouTube 9 August 2010 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDwr8ndvIM> [accessed 10 June 2020]. 70 Woman Rides The Eiffel Tower on YouTube 17 Feb 2010 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POTA5aZxbQA> [accessed 10 June 2020]. 71 Lars Laumann, Berlinmuren (2008) < https://vimeo.com/52427622> [accessed 5 June 2020]. 72 Kathy Noble, ‘Review: Lars Laumann, Maureen Paley, London, UK in Frieze.com, 1 Sept 2009 <https://frieze.com/article/lars-laumann> [accessed June 2020]. 73 Figure.6: Concrete Romance: Objectum-Sexuality on YouTube 9 August 2010 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDwr8ndvIM> [screen-shot by Emma Marks 1 July 2020]. 74 Marshall McLuhan in, ‘Relations with Concrete Others (or, How We Learned to Stopped Worrying and Love the Berlin Wall)’ in Avoiding the Subject by Clemens and Pettman (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004), p.49.
Emma Marks
Sensual-encounters with Ordinary Things: A Speculation
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