WITH THIS HYDROSEXUAL MANIFESTO, WE WANT TO LAUNCH A HYDROSEXUAL MOVEMENT IN ART TO HIGHLIGHT AND DEEPEN THE THEMATIC UNDERCURRENTS OF THE RISING FIFTH WAVE OF FEMINISM: REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, INTERSPECIES ETHICS, ECO-TECHNOLOGY, AND RETHINK UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA INTERTWINED IN OUR REALITY.
(i) HYDROSEXUALS WE ARE!
We are the aquaphiliacs, deeply contaminated bodies of water. We are babies in love with a non-binary, transitional, life-giving substance connecting every sparkle of existence on the ‘Blue planet’ at risk as never before. We come into the world through water. The joys of our sexuality are wet. Our reproductive system is disturbed by microplastic. We die dry without water under conditions of global warming, rising seas, acidification of the oceans, water scarcity, draughts, massive rains, melting icebergs, and floods.
(ii) WE LIVE IN THE HYDROCENE*
The future forms of living and dying are uncertain. They depend on new evolutions to come. The Anthropocene has distanced the Earth’s oceanic beginnings and destroyed the explosive diversity of life in the Cambrian period. In the current Hydrocene, we fight against the patriarchal capitalist impact on aquatic biodiversity loss. We envision collaboration, love, and justice beyond speciesism.
(iii) THE HYDROSEX ART
We are the shapeshifters exploring the transformative qualities of living and death. We use water, sex, and creativity to make art with you. Play with our hydrosex toys merging artistic research, performance, and digital art, or make your own to improve collective care for water through collaboration, circulation, and fluids exchange.
(iv) THE HYDROSEX MOVEMENT
Focusing on aquatic ecosystems, we continue the ecosexual movement launched by Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens. WetMeWild and Underwater Activist are cyber_nymphos representing Central European and Baltic influences. We envision Slavic hydro-myths and mesh Polish and North American culture in the performance Cyber Wedding to the Brine Shrimp to fuel the transcultural hydrosex movement in art. Hydrosexuals of the world, unite!
(v) TOWARDS THE HYDROSEX UTOPIA
The future of togetherness emerges from the bleak context of inequality. We share a dystopian reality with marine animals, aquatic plants, and farm animals. We are part of a society exploiting the ocean for profit and consuming its inhabitants. Seeking the pleasures of the plate, humans are privileged not to be preyed upon by other species. Our polluted bodies are far from innocent, yet we remain hopeful for a reduction in suffering, thirst, and dry seasons. Chickens, pigs, and caws are aquatic beyond compare!
(vi) ENVIRONMENTAL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND HEALTH
We are the mothers of brine shrimp babies. Our babies were born out of a collaboration between queer artists and feminist scientists to embody curse through human-induced mass extinction and embody ideas of transspecies coexistence. In patriarchal societies, reproductive autonomy is often denied to women, leading to sacrifices and trauma. We believe love for the planet should be free from violence and control by cis-men and corporate powers. We aim to transcend speciesism, advocate for environmental rights, and promote reproductive technologies to restore aquatic biodiversity, emancipate reproductive systems from gender bias, and compulsory birth-giving.
(vii) RESCUE ECOTECHNOLOGIES
We aim to connect artists, artivists, and scientists through the Blue Humanities Archive. This sustainable database was designed to document extinct aquatic environments, and endangered species and to serve as a collaborative space for future-making hydrofeminist networks and research in digital art in service of the Blue Planet. Through this queer digital pond, where postnatural forms of nature coexist with their predecessors in diverse assemblages, we want to share immersive experiences of natureculture aquatic environments.
Cyber Nymphos:
WetMeWild & Underwater Activist
April 2023
