NXS – a project by Amsterdam's Goys & Birls – is an experimental printed publication, where each contributor comments and reflects on a previous contribution. NXS explores "the self" in the age of digital technology, with the first issue focusing on Cyber-sensuality.

NXS aims to explore the emotional and sensual side of hardware, software and algorithms, normally assessed by functionality, aesthetics and ethics. With regards to cyber sensuality, we have developed an intimate relationship with the technological tools we use. Screens have become the surfaces of our feelings, connecting and isolating us at the same time. We experience reality through machines. The symbiosis between human and machine has catalyzed new understandings of gender, normality, nature and being human. We have jumped from the touch of human skin to VR erotic experiences, and can now satisfy any of fetishes or fantasies online. These behaviors redefine how human beings can be portrayed through the machine as an echo of the non-virtual. What does the mutated “self” look like? 

Issue #1 includes contributions by Ines alpha (FR), Trudy Barber (UK), Katrina Burch (UK/NL), Marilou Chabert (FR), Scry de Doria (FR), Aiden Doyle (AU), Jason Ebeyer (AU), ElpopoSangre (FR), Esteban Gonzalez (FR), Olga Mikh Fedorova (RU/BE), Margaret V Haines (CA), Min Jie (CN), Anja Kaiser (DE), Jacob Kerray (UK), Célestin Krier (FR), Agnese Krivade (LV), LA HORDE (FR), Hector Latrille (FR), Matt McMullen (USA), PrismViews (US), Rachel-Rose O'Leary (IE), Raf Rennie (CA), Reese Riley (USA), Nicole Ruggiero (USA), Helin Sahin (US/TR), Jack Self (UK), Yung Soft (FR), Marie Tomanová (CZ/USA), Ultrabianka (AT), Lauris Veips (LV), Janine Vermeulen (NL), Bruno Zhu (PT/NL), and Agnieszka Zimolag (PL/NL).

Curated and designed by Monika Grūzīte, Juliette Lizotte, Florian Mecklenburg (Goys & Birls)

Published by Goys & Birls, 2017

Softcover, 64 pages, full color and b&w, 7.1 × 15.5 inches