Rob Myers
Since 2003
Works in United States of America

ARTBASE (3)
PORTFOLIO (2)
BIO
Rob Myers is an artist and hacker based in the UK.

I have been creating images of the contemporary social and cultural environment through programming, design software and visual remixing since the early 1990s. My work is influenced by popular culture and high art in equal measures. My interest in remixing and sampling has led to my involvement in the Free Culture movement. I have been involved in the public consultation regarding the Creative Commons 2.0 and CC-UK licenses. All my visual art is available under a Creative Commons license.

My interest in programming has led to my involvement with the Free Software movement. I developed the Macintosh version of the Gwydion Dylan programming language compiler. All my software is available under the GNU GPL.
Discussions (509) Opportunities (1) Events (0) Jobs (0)
DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: cheesy SL


Eric Dymond wrote:
> SL looks pretty chessy to me.
> So VRML 97, so weak on the creative side of life.

VRML 2 destroyed network VR at the time by being an unimplementable
committee standard. If SL has only made a complete, multi-user
equivalent to the online VR of a decade ago that people can actually
access now they have the bandwidth that is a good thing.

There is an incredible amount of creativity in SL. It is generalized
drag, universal dandyism, a simulacral social canvas. Not all the
creativity is phrased as art, but there are many artists working making
avatars, skins, actions, effects, environments and events before we even
start considering attempts to make "VR art" in SL.

> Can avatars make a differnce in the world I navigate physically?

Yes. Political and labour struggles are finding expression in SL. And
shared fantasy and roleplay can have social content or serve a socially
useful function without directly illustrating these as the historical
examples of carnivals, masked balls or the commedia dell'arte all show.

> Domenica uttered the unbelievable comment:
> " chimera becomes the truth when enough people believe in it: "
> no it doesn't.
> Hitler, Musolini, George Bush, Jimmy Jones , et al convinced many that their *world* was truthful.
> The victims of the Jonestown massacre qualify as enlightened and right thinking by your definition.

Stepping around the equivalency, I'd rather despots stuck to their own
island in a virtual reality somewhere rather than actually getting any
realworld power.

> It is chimera, it is a restrictive environment. It is a lie.
> It holds people back from exploring new rules and systems. It is a holding tank for the digi-iliteratii.

If you have a broadband connected computer you are already part of a
tiny percentage of the Earth's population. And SL does raise the more
cogent questions of Naomi Klein's No Logo period. It's a training ground
for good little pavlovian capitalist consumers with Beverly Hills
ambitions. It raises the spectre of a Baudrillardian Disneyland to a
more general electronically mediated unreal "reality".

But the client is now Free Software and IBM and Linden Labs are working
on an Open Avatar format. Second Life Herald provides critical coverage
of SL, and there are movements for avatar/user rights. If people are
concerned about SL's current state then they can still do something, its
history has not yet finished, there is more that can be achieved.

SL is a coercive corporate enclosure, a kitsch lowest common denominator
distraction from reality. It is also a site of social expression and
conflict where many of the issues that effect contemporary social
expression and interaction are being explored with genuine consequences.
We shouldn't under-estimate the value of a shared space within society
where fantasy and masquerade intersect with the enabling technology and
driving economic attitudes of the day.

I don't think anyone will suffer if they ignore SL. But if they get a
decent graphics card, learn Linden Scripting Language, find out what
legal, social and political issues are finding expression, and get
involved then they might find that more can be made there than baby
unicorns. And even the baby unicorns raise questions...

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Re: second life dramas


Salvatore Iaconesi wrote:

> i've got stuff to do...

So had the SL users whose activities were disrupted.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Clash of Discourses: Living in a Hysterical World


It's also a slang term for a transvestite. As is an old informal term
for a transistor radio.

There's something sublimated in all this about the play of cultural
signifiers of identity.

- Rob.

Quoting utku omeroglu <utku\_omeroglu@yahoo.com>:

> It's true
>
> Andreas Jacobs <ajaco@xs4all.nl> wrote: A tv is a human invented
> technical device , which produces (moving) images and sounds through
> media space. In the hands of the malevolent it is a means to
> propagate ideas, thoughts and opinions which are not ours.
> In the hands of the benevolent it is a means to express our
> feelings , thoughts and opinions to share with each other.
>
>
> A, Andreas
>
>
> Publisher Nictoglobe
>
>
> http://www.nictoglobe.com
>
> On Sep 24, 2007, at 1:06 AM, Martin John Callanan wrote:
>
> What is a tv?
>
>
>
> On 23/9/07 16:32, "utku omeroglu" <utku\_omeroglu@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Private and public must have clash i think.
>
>
>
> Do you think we are living in a big tv?If we wanted to be there we
> would try to. we would try to become famous
>
>
>
> Actors,musicians,famous people etc i think normally become visible on tv's
>
>
>
> Andreas Jacobs <ajaco@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>
> Clash of Discourses: Living in a Hysterical World
>
> Materiality / Immateriality
> Money Economy Gift Economy
> Science / Religion
> Aesthetics Politics
> Private / Public
> Individual Collective
> Elite / Masses
> Socialism Fascism
> Institutionalized Culture / Underground
> The Wise Guys The Men from the Streets
> Urban / Rural
> Outsiders Insiders
> Literated / Illiterated
> Artist Audience
> Consumer / Producer
> Ignorance Awareness
>
> Determination of your position, and more,
>
> 14 September, 20:30 CEST @ De Balie - Centre for Culture and
> Politics, Amsterdam, Nictoglobe organized, using free publicly
> accessible open source software tools, developed and provided by de
> Balie, a DIY CoolMediaHotTalkShow about 'Creative Resistance, New
> Media as Soft Arms'
>
>
> In case you missed it, see archived show:
>
> http://www.coolmediahottalk.net/archive.jsp?showidC55
>
>
> Below our call as sent on May 15th 2007:
>
> "Nictoglobe invites you to send a short (max 500 words)
> submission which reflects upon

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Networkism and Heroism


Getting a computer to enjoy a meal for you is a good idea.

Firstly you must communicate to the computer exactly what makes a good
meal. You must represent your knowledge, guess your heuristics, ponder
the unnamable qualities of the best cuisine, introspect on the
subconscious workings of your foodie mind, and bang your head against
the qualia of flavor. This gain in knowledge and understanding will help
the theory and practice of the field of human experience being considered.

Secondly you must create a good meal. Preferably a great meal. Or, if
you are a better consumer of food than producer of it you must find
someone to create a good meal for you. Preferably a great meal. Again
this is an opportunity to gain and express understanding. Plus you have
an excuse to eat out or try out new recipes.

Thirdly you must listen to the computer to see whether it haas enjoyed
the meal. If it has not then either your knowledge of food or of chefs
is at fault or it has not been well modeled. Or perhaps the computer has
enjoyed the meal exactly as predicted. Or perhaps the computer has
enjoyed some of the meal in ways you didn't think possible, and hated
other parts of it. Whatever the case, here again is a chance to learn.

An objection to this might be that it is a very logocentric,
reductionist view of human experience. But enjoying a meal without
burning it or putting too much ketchup on it is a product of knowledge,
and the enzymes and nerve paths that create the cognitive experience are
well studied. Modeling the experience is an *aesthetic* advance on this.

Modeling gastronomic joy computationally explains it but does not
explain it away. The fear that people have of knowledge destroying
experience is a bizarre one. People still fall in love despite their
knowledge of the underlying neurochemical processes, and people still
write love poems despite their knowledge of Chomsky grammar.

So computational modeling of the experience of production and
consumption of food is a good idea. Knowledge and experience are not
opposed, far from it. They can complement and enrich each other.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Networkism and Heroism


Quoting Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com>:

> Ya, why would we want them to write the poetry?

If what they did (or were caused to do) was interesting. If it could
not be done any other way. If it was fun.

19th century poets didn't refuse to use steel nib pens, and 19th
century artists didn't refuse to use tube paint. Art does not exist
separate from technology, which does not exist separate from society.
If art is not to end up an evacuated historical simulacra, the
aesthetic equivalent of civil war reenactment, it needs to have some
kind of informed relationship to society and its technology.

This can of course be a position of refusal, but refusal is different
to conservatism or moribundity.

- Rob.