Sometimes people ask me what does an unusual sexuality expert actually do – besides having heaps of fun, that is – and they are a bit perplexed when I start ranting about semantics, sociology and the need for a broader education to sexuality. But the short answer is: I use odd sex things as the starting point to explore the entire human experience in a somewhat more entertaining way than conventional study paths. Yes, I know I lost you at ‘experience’ – yet this time I can offer a practical example.

Last November I was invited by Ivan Cenzi, the exceedingly cool Bizzarro Bazar guy, to present a talk at his Accademia dell’Incanto (meaning ‘Wonder Academy’) conference series, held at the gorgeous Mirabilia Art Gallery in Rome. I was immediately fascinated by that modern wunderkammer, so I suggested something equally architecture-related as my topic, and we settled on a history of the boudoir.
The result was quite emblematic of my work and the recording wasn’t too awful either, so we kept it at hand to someday publish it – maybe when I had enough free time to prepare an English-language version too. And guess what? These Christmas holidays turned out to be perfect for that!

So, without further ado, below you can watch a prime example of my occupation, just a little horrifically marred by my awful English speech, plus a cold. Clicking on the captioning option (the ‘CC’ symbol in the lower right corner) should really help, though. Enjoy!

Faced with life’s great mysteries, Man has always attempted to contain the fear of the unknown within physical confines: cemeteries, churches, sanatoriums. It is no wonder then if 30,000 years ago one of our ancestors created the first “sex room” to celebrate the biggest enigma of them all. So a fascinating saga began where physical and mind spaces keep feeding off each other, in an ongoing psycho-geographical journey influenced by history, literature, technology, architecture, pornography and urban legends.