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.
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.
Re: re: citizen king
On Tuesday, January 11, 2005, at 11:47AM, Jim Andrews <jim@vispo.com> wrote:
>art isn't necessarily particularly didactic or at all didactic, of course.
>it isn't so much about teaching lessons as creating challenging experiences.
>still, such experiences are important in schools and there's great scope for
>art in education. i take it that part of what we're about as net.artists is
>to help society use computers imaginatively and wisely. so that they become
>extensions of our humanity even as we move into the 'post human' (which is
>the human extended by technology). that requires people experience
>imaginative and wise use of computers, and it also requires that they be
>able to find their way to their own imaginative and wise use of computers.
>the art provides the former. but artists can help with the latter too, in
>their projects.
Another book I'm waiting for in the mail may be of interest here:
Handbook of Inaesthetics
Alain Badiou, Translated by Alberto Toscano
This volume presents a new proposal for the link between philosophy and art. Badiou identifies and rejects the three schemes of didacticism, romanticism, and classicism that he sees as having governed traditional "aesthetics," and seeks a fourth mode of accounting for the educative value of works of art.
168 pages, 2005.
ISBN 0804744092 paper ISBN 0804744084 cloth
- Rob.
>art isn't necessarily particularly didactic or at all didactic, of course.
>it isn't so much about teaching lessons as creating challenging experiences.
>still, such experiences are important in schools and there's great scope for
>art in education. i take it that part of what we're about as net.artists is
>to help society use computers imaginatively and wisely. so that they become
>extensions of our humanity even as we move into the 'post human' (which is
>the human extended by technology). that requires people experience
>imaginative and wise use of computers, and it also requires that they be
>able to find their way to their own imaginative and wise use of computers.
>the art provides the former. but artists can help with the latter too, in
>their projects.
Another book I'm waiting for in the mail may be of interest here:
Handbook of Inaesthetics
Alain Badiou, Translated by Alberto Toscano
This volume presents a new proposal for the link between philosophy and art. Badiou identifies and rejects the three schemes of didacticism, romanticism, and classicism that he sees as having governed traditional "aesthetics," and seeks a fourth mode of accounting for the educative value of works of art.
168 pages, 2005.
ISBN 0804744092 paper ISBN 0804744084 cloth
- Rob.
Re: FW: information wants to be free
Thanks for this! I'm waiting for a copy of 'The Hacker manifesto' in
the mail...
My standard response to the quote "information wants to be free" is
"OK, give me your credit card details then". :-)
Money is information. I think Neal Stevenson's recent work touches on
this.
The programmers I work with who have a ridiculous fear of unionizing
nonetheless liked the idea of asynchronously optimizing the flow of
information through the network they operate within. Or striking to get
a pay rise as it used to be known. :-)
Do be wary of historical materialism's fetishism of physical objects
and its resulting need for the nonphysical to be physical in order to
be tractable (I say this in spite of my love of HM art criticism).
Images and other historical but meta-physical occurrences cause
difficulty for HM critiques, and can distort theory around them.
- Rob.
On 9 Jan 2005, at 07:38, Christina McPhee wrote:
> Apologies for cross posting. Interesting text; info is material.
the mail...
My standard response to the quote "information wants to be free" is
"OK, give me your credit card details then". :-)
Money is information. I think Neal Stevenson's recent work touches on
this.
The programmers I work with who have a ridiculous fear of unionizing
nonetheless liked the idea of asynchronously optimizing the flow of
information through the network they operate within. Or striking to get
a pay rise as it used to be known. :-)
Do be wary of historical materialism's fetishism of physical objects
and its resulting need for the nonphysical to be physical in order to
be tractable (I say this in spite of my love of HM art criticism).
Images and other historical but meta-physical occurrences cause
difficulty for HM critiques, and can distort theory around them.
- Rob.
On 9 Jan 2005, at 07:38, Christina McPhee wrote:
> Apologies for cross posting. Interesting text; info is material.
Re: Re: Re: BEACON
On Thursday, January 06, 2005, at 01:59PM, M. River <mriver102@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:14 AM, P.Erl wrote:
>>
>> > There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random
>> > search strings.
>
>You know what would be very cool? If you made a search engine which only yields results about a child star from 80s??? American television who types his diary into a computer (early blog?) in each episode. If only someone would make a search engine like that...if only...
Which show was that?
Hmmm. A history of computer diarists would illuminate the current debate around blogging. Does Ada lovelace count, or do you have to have written your diary on a computer rather than about a computer in your diary?
What you *really* want is a meta-search engine that only searches art project search engines.
Or failing that, payment from Google for all the cultural assimilation these projects do for them. ;-)
- Rob.
>> On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:14 AM, P.Erl wrote:
>>
>> > There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random
>> > search strings.
>
>You know what would be very cool? If you made a search engine which only yields results about a child star from 80s??? American television who types his diary into a computer (early blog?) in each episode. If only someone would make a search engine like that...if only...
Which show was that?
Hmmm. A history of computer diarists would illuminate the current debate around blogging. Does Ada lovelace count, or do you have to have written your diary on a computer rather than about a computer in your diary?
What you *really* want is a meta-search engine that only searches art project search engines.
Or failing that, payment from Google for all the cultural assimilation these projects do for them. ;-)
- Rob.
Re: Re: Re: BEACON
On Thursday, January 06, 2005, at 01:59PM, M. River <mriver102@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:14 AM, P.Erl wrote:
>>
>> > There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random
>> > search strings.
>
>You know what would be very cool? If you made a search engine which only yields results about a child star from 80s??? American television who types his diary into a computer (early blog?) in each episode. If only someone would make a search engine like that...if only...
Which show was that?
Hmmm. A history of computer diarists would illuminate the current debate around blogging. Does Ada lovelace count, or do you have to have written your diary on a computer rather than about a computer in your diary?
What you *really* want is a meta-search engine that only searches art project search engines.
Or failing that, payment from Google for all the cultural assimilation these projects do for them. ;-)
- Rob.
>> On Jan 5, 2005, at 11:14 AM, P.Erl wrote:
>>
>> > There have been many projects that use real-time displays of random
>> > search strings.
>
>You know what would be very cool? If you made a search engine which only yields results about a child star from 80s??? American television who types his diary into a computer (early blog?) in each episode. If only someone would make a search engine like that...if only...
Which show was that?
Hmmm. A history of computer diarists would illuminate the current debate around blogging. Does Ada lovelace count, or do you have to have written your diary on a computer rather than about a computer in your diary?
What you *really* want is a meta-search engine that only searches art project search engines.
Or failing that, payment from Google for all the cultural assimilation these projects do for them. ;-)
- Rob.
Frieze on Political Art
I fear that the symbols of recusance aren't going to effect much change as they progress from studio to museum wall.
Surface references can preclude discussion since they suggest that deeper meaning implicitly resides in the work. The engage artist can mistake reproducing historical images of political activism for activism itself, and, as a result, is in danger of being no better than a nostalgist, performing cover versions of other people's slogans. (As Morrissey sang, 'I thought if you had an acoustic guitar, it meant you were a protest singer'.)"
http://www.frieze.com/column_single.asp?c8
I tend to think of Wolfie Smith or the JPF rather than Rick, though... :-)
- Rob.
Surface references can preclude discussion since they suggest that deeper meaning implicitly resides in the work. The engage artist can mistake reproducing historical images of political activism for activism itself, and, as a result, is in danger of being no better than a nostalgist, performing cover versions of other people's slogans. (As Morrissey sang, 'I thought if you had an acoustic guitar, it meant you were a protest singer'.)"
http://www.frieze.com/column_single.asp?c8
I tend to think of Wolfie Smith or the JPF rather than Rick, though... :-)
- Rob.