Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews

Sex Machines is an awesome book... very bizarre! There are tons of photographs and interviews of people with their sex machine inventions. I had no idea such strange sh*t even existed. I should not be surprised though... I guess this is to be expected in the modern age of technology. Archibald dissolves any sort of stereotypes that people may have about fetishes and unusual sexual behavior. Most people in the books are your typical suburban dwellers and any of them may be your next-door neighbor! The interviews are a great addition to the book and rather essential in order to understand the sexual behaviors and motivations of the people depicted in the book. The book contents are also outstanding due to his extensive research on the subject. The photographs are stunning as well. There is a certain style here that is very effective in documenting the sex machines. Overall, the book is fabulous! It would be a great addition to anyone's coffeetable book collection... also a great conversation starter! I think I'm going to have to go build a SEX MACHINE now!

it is not what I expected! It's great when I am surprised. It is so "cute" looking. Kinda like a kids book, all fresh colors. At first glance it is naughty, but unthreatening, which is the beauty in it's concept. Not what I expected at all, I love surprises. The lawn mower really sets it up. The hidden lives of suburban inventers. Tim's style of very clear slightly detracted shots really adds to the simpleness of the topic without judgment or guilt. You don¹t really even feel like you have crossed a sexual boundary. Simple folks inventing, like a science project, or fixing the mower. But then I put it down for a few days and then looked at it again. It is a really weird book! And that's coming from someone that haunted the NYC sex clubs with Mapplethorpe and Tom of Finland. All those little background elements, a fire extinguisher, and the shot with the two and the camper is just a great shot, love the vacuum cleaner. (he looks like one of my ex's) and his interview is terrific. Once I got past the whole concept and design it all comes down to great photography, and documentation of something very unusual, and probably very American, and he u got it first!"

In the hilariously over-pedantic penultimate chapter of _Ulysses_, Joyce describes human copulation as the "energetic piston and cylinder movement necessary for the complete satisfaction of a constant but not acute concupiscence resident in a bodily and mental female organism." Everyone is interested in sex, but only some concentrate on the pistons, and by pistons here, I am not being metaphorical, but literal. The inventors depicted in _Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews_ (Process / Daniel 13) by Timothy Archibald are almost all piston men. Archibald stumbled upon their works when doing research on independent inventors in general, and found that though the community of sex-machine inventors may be small, it has some cohesion. There are sex machines for sale on eBay, for instance, and web circles of specialists who invent, sell, and collect the machines. The invention of such things has gone on for centuries, as Archibald discovered in browsing Patent Office files, but current technology within the machines as well as within communication between the inventors has brought this particular endeavor out into the open. The result here is a funny book of pictures and interviews that is a small celebration of a peculiar American endeavor. The photographs, color and full-page in a large format book, do not show any of the machines in action; there is a little tasteful above-the-waist nudity in the pictures, but most concentrate on the machines and the inventors. The pictures often have the machines in just the right environment, the garage or workshop where they were born. Many sit on workbenches as if awaiting the next tweak that will bring the device closer to perfection. Some are on beds. One is on the living room rug, with sawdust and power tools around it, as if we can just anticipate the (one hopes) mixed reaction of the woman of the house when she gets back. The inventors are there, each welding on his machine, or adjusting it, or leaning against the wall with an "Aw, shucks" modesty. Even if you have never seen machines like this, it will be quite obvious what each one does. Every one of them has at its action end some sort of phallus, and perhaps because men are the ones tinkering with them, the phalluses are substantial in length and girth. Some are obviously powered by motors from household appliances, and one uses the motor of a KitchenAid mixer. This has the advantage that you can detach the sexual attachment, put the mixing blade back on, and make cookies. The Cadillac of such machines is the Orgasmo, selling for $6969. The inventor is proud of his work: "I've heard the other guys bragging. I'd be glad to take on their machines anywhere." He describes a highly successful product: "It does everything you want it to: it angles, it raises, it lowers, it vibrates, it thrusts, it's fast, it's slow... it does everything but snuggle with you." Which, of course, is the ambiguity of success with machine sex. In this boo

I am one of those people who love Americana. As an Americana lover, I have always been curious about fellow American's sexual exploration. Timothy Archibald has discovered the seemingly underground, grassroots, world of "Sex Machines." However, Timothy Archibald has revealed a lifestyle that more and more Americans are making part of daily their routines. "Sex Machines" illustrates that, "Sex is important to people, sexual freedom is important to people, sexual scientific advancements should be praised and the acknowledgement sexual freedom is an important step in today's society. And for that, I thank you Mr. Archibald.

I first saw the author's project on the web a few years back. Forgot about it and then stumbled upon the book last week at work. It's beautiful and cool and surprising all at once. Right now I think its my favorite book of the year, I luv it. Some backround: The author went out across the US to meet inventors of these home made machines. Rather than a freakshow, he finds this collection of everyday people that have curious tales to tell about themselves, their lives and everything else in between. The photographs themselves look like they are from the American heartland, as if the author tapped into America's little secret, this thing we had no idea existed. The photographs and stories are sandwiched between two essays, but the real stuff is in the middle: the tales the subjects tell, honestly, all in their own words.