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: Re: Re: Re: Mark Tribe's - New Media Art, book.


On 12 Aug 2006, at 02:16, Jim Andrews wrote:

> I recall you saying you worked for or with Soda on Constructor.

I left Soda before they made Constructor. I found out about it
virally when I was working for H2G2, which is part of what I base my
estimation of its impact on.

But, yes, disclaimer, I was with Soda when they started. :-)

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Re: Re: Mark Tribe's - New Media Art, book.


On 11 Aug 2006, at 13:52, Jim Andrews wrote:

>> If I don't know who Barbara Kruger is and I write a book on 1980s
>> American art
>> that omits her I am incompetent. If I do know who Barbara Kruger
>> is and
>> I write
>> a book on 1980s American art that omits her I have some explaining
>> to do.
>
> That may well be. But concerning net art, isn't it really only Jodi
> about
> whom you could say the same? Only Jodi is sufficiently famous. And,
> even
> then, were the book about net art since 2000, well, wasn't it
> around then or
> perhaps even before when Jodi pretty much stopped making net art?

Oh for general fame, yes, although Soda have done very well with
Constructor. The context for net.artists would be net.art, rather
than American art or art in general, so MTAA, Glorious Ninth, Stanza
et al would all be included along with Jodi, assuming as you say it
wasn't net.art since 2000.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Re: Re: Mark Tribe's - New Media Art, book.


On 11 Aug 2006, at 20:01, Alexis Turner wrote:

> I have/had no intent to close the ranks on this one, merely to
> suggest we
> analyze the things we take for granted.

I'm *calling* for analysis of what is taken for granted: the
omissions & inclusions in a particular cultural work. Discussing
future ideal systems would be interesting, but is not a substitute
for this.

Furtherfield are in fact part of the future you propose: an open site
for review, discussion, education and creation. I personally like
this glimpse of your future but if I were you I'd feel a little
slighted by the fact that it doesn't seem to be considered suitable
for inclusion in a book about net.art . ;-)

> (As an aside, the message is the important thing, is it not? Why
> do we care so much how it is delivered? It's a fascinating
> question to turn over.)

There are various useful concepts around this. Hofstadter talks about
"framing message" in "Godel Escher Bach", McLuhan claims that the
medium is the message, and The Fun Boy Three claim that "It ain't
what you do it's the way that you do it" (with some asistance from
Bananarama). The delivery is part of the message, there are no
incidentals in communication, certainly not in autographic work.
Allographic work may have some leeway, although noise can be ironised
into signal by nostalgia, Trip Hop music, 8-bit art and music and
Glitch Art are good examples of this.

I wish I had time to format that in Mez-speak to underline it. :-)

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: Re: Re: Mark Tribe's - New Media Art, book.


Quoting Alexis Turner <subbies@redheadedstepchild.org>:

> The non-complaining points that you made seemed to be basically that the book
> doesn't cover what it should.

That seems to be a substantive criticism.

The Internet is global, and much net.art work, even some of importance, has
taken place in that forgotten corner of the market known as The Rest Of The
World.

Attempts to streamline the emerging histroy of net.art in favor of ...?
can and
should be contested.

> My point is that any
> book that showcases something like "new media art" is going to miss certain
> things,

If I don't know who Barbara Kruger is and I write a book on 1980s American art
that omits her I am incompetent. If I do know who Barbara Kruger is and
I write
a book on 1980s American art that omits her I have some explaining to do.

Furtherfield is not unimportant.

Omissions can be accounted for, and when those omissions are important they
*should* be accounted for. The claim that "any book that showcases something
like "new media art" is going to miss certain things" does kinda render things
a bit opaque.

> To be honest, I thought that point was a given, and that is why I ask
> what YOUR
> point is.

In Soviet Russia, apologists accuse YOU! /slashdot

I do agree that any "comprehensive" survey is going to be a mass of
exclusions,
score-settling, favors, boosting, covering-up and right moves.

This doesn't mean that we are forbidden from asking what those are.

> I feel like I must be missing something. Like maybe you have a
> different gripe that you haven't mentioned - perhaps the text sucks ass. But
> that's not what you brought up. You brought up its
> non-comprehensiveness. What
> am I missing?

If a net.art text was well written but ignored Rhizome, nettime and (say) MTAA
in favor of "Downloadables" (1996) by Rob Myers that would not be OK. Well I'd
be happy obviously, but I'd have to admit that soemthing wasn't right. If a
series of texts emerged that did this I'd want to know what was going on.

Marc's critique deserves an answer packed slightly less with cubist straw men
("Are you suggesting that books not be written on the subject?"). I
don't think
that closing ranks is the best response.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION