A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

How has technology shaped and been shaped by sexuality? This 700+ page artist book gathers anecdotes, artworks, and historical artifacts that reveal the pervasive and perverted origins of our digital tools. 

This eponymous artist book is published alongside A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET, a participatory lecture performance told through the audience’s phones.

THIS BOOK IS A HISTORY. It gathers anecdotes, artworks, and historical artifacts that reveal the pervasive and perverted origins of our digital tools.

THIS BOOK IS A SCRIPT. It documents A Sexual History of the Internet, a participatory lecture performance told through the audience’s phones. It is a polyvocal story, whose citations are read aloud by the audience — performance as re-citation.

THIS BOOK IS AN EXPERIMENT. This book is a fiscal experiment of redistribution. In it, you’ll find citations by 45 people who have shaped my understanding of the internet, sex, and sexual technologies. When you buy this book, they will split a percentage of profits. We call this experiment “Citational Splits,” a new model of attribution.

This Metalabel release makes available 5000 first-edition copies of the book.

Artist, Author: Mindy Seu Designer: Laura Coombs Editor: Meg Miller Collaborator: Julio Correa Illustrator: Ven Qiu Timecodes Scripting: Jon Gacnik Videographer: Gabriel Noguez 3D Artist: Tom Hancocks Website Support: Charles Broskoski Metalabel: Yancey Strickler Consultant: Gia Kuan Printer: DZA

This Instagram-Stories-as-Lecture format was first conceived of by Julio Correa in Seu’s Lecture Performance studio course (Fall 2023) at Yale School of Art. Seu further developed this format, in collaboration with Correa, for A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET.

PRAISE “The performance sounds like a Catholic Mass… gave me shivers.” —Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art

“Is the internet about sex or sterility? It’s a species-level decision we still have not made. But the conversation is starting with A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET. A must-see if you have sex organs and use the internet.” —Jaron Lanier, pioneer of virtual reality

“This is not just a performance, it’s an excavation. Mindy Seu exposes the sexual subtext coded into our technologies and reframes the internet as a site of power, control, and longing. It’s bold, brilliant, and necessary.” —Erika Lust, pornographic filmmaker

Mindy Seu (b. 1991, California) is an artist and technologist based in Los Angeles and New York City whose practice focuses on technology-driven performance and publication. A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET (2025) follows her first book CYBERFEMINISM INDEX (2023), a pseudo-encyclopedia that gathers three decades of online activism and net art, which was commissioned by Rhizome, premiered at the New Museum, and awarded a Graham Foundation Grant. Mindy is currently teaching as an Associate Professor at University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Design Media Arts.

“A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET”
Published by The Dark Forest Collective
Leatherbound paperback 704 pages
8.5 × 14.5 × 5.0 cm / 3.35 × 5.71 × 1.97 inches
ISBN: 979-8-9929364-1-4
First Edition 5000 copies
Release Date: September 2025