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: SocialEast Forum (Call for Papers)


On 4 Jul 2006, at 19:54, Alexis Turner wrote:

> ::Sorry ,in my innocence I had assumed it was the duty
> ::of academics to look beyond self labelling.
>
> It is the job of academics to not only look beyond self-labeling,
> but also to
> create labels so far removed from reality that they in no way imply
> a stance,
> thus allowing the academic to either disavow anything they have
> said or claim
> that the person reading the statement has not understood it.

Ha ha. Yes, academics do bullshit sometimes. It's the job of us mere
mortals to point out when their amazingly fantastic new ideas smell
funny. Otherwise the stance you describe is that of a manipulative
and irresponsible adolescent, not an engaged academic.

> It is also the
> academic's job to turn any question around on the questioner by saying
> things like, "Well, my silly man, what would -you- have called
> it?", thus,
> again, implying that the reader has not understood.

Certainly. But academics must have no immunity from being shown their
own incomprehension, otherwise they become mere ideologues. Selective
pleading for suspension of value judgements is usefully questioned by
introduction of actual lived experience. We should thank Michael for
his contribution and at least suspend value judgements on it whilst
we explore it to see what useful possibilities it opens up, rather
than rejecting it in a sophistic closing of academic ranks.

> Really, if you want to argue against a system, the only way you are
> allowed to
> do it is by playing the same game, even if your complaint is that
> it is the game
> that is corrupt.

Or one could go meta to make a value judgement on the making of
substantive criticisms rather than answering those substantive
criticisms.

> Otherwise, you haven't understood it. Jesus, man, get it
> together.

I don't understand. This seems to be a value judgement and an attempt
to close off discussion.

- Rob.


DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Re: J.KOONS ABOUT MANIK'S NEW WORKS


On 18 Jun 2006, at 05:18, Eric Dymond wrote:

> I don't know Rob, the Virilio metaphor is a stretch.

Oh I certainly wouldn't compare the totality of Koons's work with the
totality of Virilio's work ,I meant a particular method of Virilio's
with words (or concepts). The algebra-like way he treats them sometimes.

> I honestly can't look at Koons, or many other artists from the 80's
> and 90's the same way after 911.

If we conceded the apologists' claim that 9/11 was about social
inequality and frustration, Koons's work would have even more
relevance now than before.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: J.KOONS ABOUT MANIK'S NEW WORKS


On 17 Jun 2006, at 14:53, manik wrote:

> "MANIK'S WORKS CONSTRUCT ROMANTIC,MELANCHOLY,AND OTHERWISE RICHLY
> DRAMATIC NARRATIVES
> ABOUT PAST,PRESENT,AND FUTURE OF INDIVIDUALS INTERSUBJECTIVE
> RELATIONSHIP."
>
> J.KOONS ABOUT MANIK'S NEW
> WORKS,JUNE 2006.

Ro-co-co.

Jeff Koons is still one of my favorite artists, I think 99% of people
miss the point of his work, which isn't the market or sales or
appropriation, it's the social, institutional aesthetics of the
distributions of market, sales, and appropriation. It's a feedback
loop: the point is making him rich, and making him rich is the point.

It's insincere commercialism all the way down, but the surplus value
of the spiral is social content. It's like reality TV, only his life
really is what he's acting.

The posters of the basketball players and the frozen basketballs,
it's the kind of algebra that Virilio does with words done on
iconography, with social indexes rather than philosophical indexes.
The balloon puppy is the aqualung for a man who has a life to lose,
and has lost some of it.

More people should give Jeff Koons more of a chance.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: ass dislikes art


On 13 Jun 2006, at 18:15, T.Whid wrote:

> http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/Art_Inhuman/inhuman1.asp
>
> humbly submitted for the Rhizome community's perusal ;-)

Slashdotted. Try the Goole cache:

http://64.233.183.104/search?qEche:L8gFFnCLEBMJ:www.artrenewal.org/
articles/2002/Art_Inhuman/inhuman1.asp+&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1

- Rob.