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: Metadata
Quoting Richard Rinehart <rinehart@berkeley.edu>:
> I'm curious about the statement you made below Rob, that any
> folksonomy can be made compatible with standards using a good
> thesaurus. Do you have an example of this?
I don't have an example I'm afraid. It's more a strategy I had in mind for
paintr (http://paintr.robmyers.org/). Folksonomies and taxonomies are both
formalisations of human language, so if my RDF doesn't contain the word "blue"
but it does contain the word "color" I can locate my tag in the RDF using
wordnet or a thesaurus.
> Your note on the AAT is very (VERY) well taken. Yes, the AAT is not
> yet a good resource for terms for new media art, yet it is the single
> standard used most by museums and other organizations collecting new
> media art. So, one strategy would be to ignore the AAT as irrelevant;
> but another might be to work with the Getty to update and improve the
> AAT with relevant terms so that (digital) community-specific practice
> becomes (museum) community specific practice rather than creating a
> ghetto (though I'm not sure which is the ghetto of the other here :)
> In the past, the Getty unit that had maintained the AAT had expressed
> interest in updating the AAT based on feedback from the relevant
> community (us).
Yes I think that might be a very good project.
Possibly collaborating to make AAT net.art aware and having a process to add
more terms relatively quickly as they come up? So in artbase have a list of
terms you can choose followed by an "other" checkbox that people could add
terms they felt weren't in the taxonomy. We (the Rhizome community) could then
keep an eye on those and see if they should go into AAT.
A folksonomy might be more democratic & easier to implement though. :-)
On the subject of proprietary software it might be an idea for Rhizome to get
licenses for Windows, ASP, IIS and so on so that software unfortunately
written
for them can still be run in the future. In a few years time having this stuff
available for galleries to hire might actually provide a revenue stream. ;-)
- Rob.
> I'm curious about the statement you made below Rob, that any
> folksonomy can be made compatible with standards using a good
> thesaurus. Do you have an example of this?
I don't have an example I'm afraid. It's more a strategy I had in mind for
paintr (http://paintr.robmyers.org/). Folksonomies and taxonomies are both
formalisations of human language, so if my RDF doesn't contain the word "blue"
but it does contain the word "color" I can locate my tag in the RDF using
wordnet or a thesaurus.
> Your note on the AAT is very (VERY) well taken. Yes, the AAT is not
> yet a good resource for terms for new media art, yet it is the single
> standard used most by museums and other organizations collecting new
> media art. So, one strategy would be to ignore the AAT as irrelevant;
> but another might be to work with the Getty to update and improve the
> AAT with relevant terms so that (digital) community-specific practice
> becomes (museum) community specific practice rather than creating a
> ghetto (though I'm not sure which is the ghetto of the other here :)
> In the past, the Getty unit that had maintained the AAT had expressed
> interest in updating the AAT based on feedback from the relevant
> community (us).
Yes I think that might be a very good project.
Possibly collaborating to make AAT net.art aware and having a process to add
more terms relatively quickly as they come up? So in artbase have a list of
terms you can choose followed by an "other" checkbox that people could add
terms they felt weren't in the taxonomy. We (the Rhizome community) could then
keep an eye on those and see if they should go into AAT.
A folksonomy might be more democratic & easier to implement though. :-)
On the subject of proprietary software it might be an idea for Rhizome to get
licenses for Windows, ASP, IIS and so on so that software unfortunately
written
for them can still be run in the future. In a few years time having this stuff
available for galleries to hire might actually provide a revenue stream. ;-)
- Rob.
Re: Metadata
I think folksonomy is best. Tagging works, people understand it, it
doesn't take lots of resources up-front, and it can be made
compatible with other standards using a good thesaurus. :-)
A quick check of the AAT for some common terms (generative, net.art,
spam) shows that it is not useful for work Rhizome artbase will
actually need to describe.
Imagine a tag cloud of the artbase. :-)
- Rob.
doesn't take lots of resources up-front, and it can be made
compatible with other standards using a good thesaurus. :-)
A quick check of the AAT for some common terms (generative, net.art,
spam) shows that it is not useful for work Rhizome artbase will
actually need to describe.
Imagine a tag cloud of the artbase. :-)
- Rob.
Ventriloquism
A common trope in portmanteau horror films and psychological shockers is the
animate ventriloquist's dummy. There are two common variants of this scenario:
the posessed dummy and the insane ventriloquist.
Now imagine a film where the ventriloquist's delusion is that their posessed
dummy is not in fact speaking, and that they must speak for them.
- Rob.
animate ventriloquist's dummy. There are two common variants of this scenario:
the posessed dummy and the insane ventriloquist.
Now imagine a film where the ventriloquist's delusion is that their posessed
dummy is not in fact speaking, and that they must speak for them.
- Rob.
Re: Orhtodox Easter
On 23 Apr 2006, at 16:39, utku omeroglu wrote:
> How you describe 'Orthodox' ? by eyevision logic?
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Christianity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_church
> Turkey is an 'Orthodox' country from a bit deep look.
Turkey is a secular state (in the sense that Church and State are
separate like in the US and in France), and IIRC most people there
are Sunni Muslims. I therefore wouldn't call it Orthodox in this
sense. :-)
- Rob.
> How you describe 'Orthodox' ? by eyevision logic?
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Christianity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_church
> Turkey is an 'Orthodox' country from a bit deep look.
Turkey is a secular state (in the sense that Church and State are
separate like in the US and in France), and IIRC most people there
are Sunni Muslims. I therefore wouldn't call it Orthodox in this
sense. :-)
- Rob.
Re: relational aesthetics
The trained seal of approval that is Relational Aesthetics (The Institutional
Theory + Suspension Of Judgement - Radical Commitment) is unlikely to get its
coat based on the chinstroking of Octoberistas. Pointing out that there is
someone behind the curtain doesn't help. That someone still has social
relations.
Despite Bourriaud's protestatations, RA is deeply, achingly, embarrasingly
managerial. It is the managerial mode of regard embodied in materials that
managers recognise: assets, particularly human assets.
And RA is auratic. Because without the aura of management -uh- art, what
differentiates the social and aesthetic incompetence of RA from just actual
social and aesthetic incompetence?
Both these qualities can only increase if people need their passports or
whatever as part of the beautific images of managerialism that RA give us as
works. Managers' egos will not be deflated by an "art" of ever stronger
management of Real People in ever more tighly controlled additions (or
revelations) of managerial value (or power) in social situations.
Bishop's assessment of British art criticism in the 1990s is depressingly
accurate but there is an account of art from that time that gives us something
to work with. Julian Stallabrass's concept of the Urban Pastoral (from "High
Art Lite") is far too close to the bone of RA to leave unused.
- Rob.
PS - In a probably futile attempt to dodge a Tindalosian Fisking, I would like
to point out that my own art is not RA, and because of the technical and
indexical content it has it would not make very good RA-art. But is frequently
concerned with various scales of relationships.
Theory + Suspension Of Judgement - Radical Commitment) is unlikely to get its
coat based on the chinstroking of Octoberistas. Pointing out that there is
someone behind the curtain doesn't help. That someone still has social
relations.
Despite Bourriaud's protestatations, RA is deeply, achingly, embarrasingly
managerial. It is the managerial mode of regard embodied in materials that
managers recognise: assets, particularly human assets.
And RA is auratic. Because without the aura of management -uh- art, what
differentiates the social and aesthetic incompetence of RA from just actual
social and aesthetic incompetence?
Both these qualities can only increase if people need their passports or
whatever as part of the beautific images of managerialism that RA give us as
works. Managers' egos will not be deflated by an "art" of ever stronger
management of Real People in ever more tighly controlled additions (or
revelations) of managerial value (or power) in social situations.
Bishop's assessment of British art criticism in the 1990s is depressingly
accurate but there is an account of art from that time that gives us something
to work with. Julian Stallabrass's concept of the Urban Pastoral (from "High
Art Lite") is far too close to the bone of RA to leave unused.
- Rob.
PS - In a probably futile attempt to dodge a Tindalosian Fisking, I would like
to point out that my own art is not RA, and because of the technical and
indexical content it has it would not make very good RA-art. But is frequently
concerned with various scales of relationships.