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: NYT review of ArtBase 101


On 1 Jul 2005, at 05:20, Lewis LaCook wrote:

> So we only make art for other artists?

So we only make medicine for doctors?

Art is made for its audience. There may be a problem with net.art/art
computing: it may just be the folk art of the digital creative class,
with an audience of a nerds (who aren't as rich as the hatas seem to
believe). Or it may be more representative of a society in transition
to digital technology (and the ways of being that motivate/emerge
from that transition).

If I made a piece of Nu Metal or Gangsta Rap, an FPS, a Mills & Boon
novel, a martial arts film, a sci-fi cartoon, if I made any of that,
it would be recognised that there are formal and content-al concerns
to the work that require specialised knowledge. Ambient music,
Russian cinema, it would be recognised that you might have to make
some effort to engage with it. A critic might dismiss these works as
examples of a valueless genre, but they would have to recognise that
they were doing so. And they could not fall back on the "elitism" or
exclusivity canards.

So we only make art for other artists? Hell no. No more than we only
make drugs for doctors. But don't be fooled by the apparent easy
availability of 'Popular' culture. It takes a lot of work to get
people to engage so casually with something like Pop Idol. Millions
of dollars of work. Art can't do that, it doesn't have the budget.

And it shouldn't have to. Active regard is an empowering skill,
passive consumption isn't. We're providing different value in art
than popular culture isn't.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re:_RHIZOME_RAW:_Viva_arboles_felices


On 30 Jun 2005, at 04:02, ryan griffis wrote:

> On Jun 29, 2005, at 5:32 PM, Pall Thayer wrote:
>
>> If that's how art should be I'll have to erase my brain and run
>> out to the local hobby store and pick up Bob Ross' Joy of Painting
>> tapes. At least I can be fairly sure that my fellow teacher will
>> keep complimenting me on my work.
>>
>
> http://site.angrypete.net/article/372/my-icons-are-gone
> "One of my very first influences, in the artistic world was Bob
> Ross. I

I'm more a Rolf Harris guy:

"Can you tell what it is yet?"

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: NYT review of ArtBase 101


It's important for art to be free, but any project has its motives
and its agenda. *Why* is erasing distinctions what "we" do? And *why*
should high and low forms be combined by individuals who historically
have served high forms?

Rendering oneself low simply places one within the normal context of
low culture. And art isn't as good as a video game judged as low
culture.

Placing high content in a low form is pastoral (Julian Stallabrass,
"High Art Lite"), the contemporary equivalent of painting lowly
shepherds to illustrate a moral point. I'd go further and say that
slumming it is just so bourgeois. :-)

- Rob.

On 30 Jun 2005, at 02:03, Lewis LaCook wrote:

> But Pall....
>
> --erasing the distinction between disciplines is what
> we DO--and one of those distinctions SHOULD BE the
> gulf between "high-brow" and "low-brow" forms--to
> cloister oneself like this is to risk
> obsolesence...and it's politically just what any good
> totalitaian regime would want--
>
> bliss
> l
>
>
>
> --- Pall Thayer <palli@pallit.lhi.is> wrote:
>
>
>> Sarah Boxers two articles that have come up for
>> discussion here, are an
>> insult to new media art. They suggest that it
>> doesn't warrant the same
>> treatment as other art. Read some of the other
>> articles in the same
>> edition of NYTimes as the last article. There's
>> music critique and dance
>> critique. Both handled in a very professional
>> manner. Insightful
>> comments that suggest the authors knowledge of the
>> field and give the
>> artists themselves something to chew on. It doesn't
>> matter if the
>> critique is good or bad but a good critique from
>> someone who doesn't
>> seem to know what they're talking about is a lot
>> worse than a bad
>> critique from someone who does.
>>
>> Engaging the viewer:
>> We can't expect everyone to understand what we do or
>> even care. When one
>> of my fellow teachers, a guy who likes to swap "guy"
>> jokes and bet on
>> football matches, tells me he likes a piece I've
>> done, I'm mildly
>> flattered but no more so than if he would compliment
>> me on my new 'do
>> (which he would of course never do for fear of
>> appearing "gay"). Maybe
>> he really does like it, but probably not for the
>> same reasons that I
>> made it. However, when a former professor of mine
>> and highly regarded
>> and pioneering Icelandic artist likes the same piece
>> enough to suggest
>> to his wife that she interview me for her highly
>> respected radio show on
>> all things cultural, I'm elated. I could care less
>> whether he notices my
>> new hairdo or not. To suggest that we try to bring
>> ourselves down to
>> some public level of understanding is absurd. It's
>> like asking Einstein
>> to teach 5th grade math. If that's how art should be
>> I'll have to erase
>> my brain and run out to the local hobby store and
>> pick up Bob Ross' Joy
>> of Painting tapes. At least I can be fairly sure
>> that my fellow teacher
>> will keep complimenting me on my work.
>>
>> Pall
>>
>> ps. Thanks Lewis. And to John Q. Public, sorry for
>> making you think but
>> you never know when it'll be back in vogue.
>>
>> furtherfield wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Geert,
>>>
>>> If they are informed it helps, yes...
>>>
>>> marc
>>>
>>>
>>>> Actually the function or role of the critic
>>>>
>> (imho) should ideally be
>>
>>>> of the expert witness -- one who knows enough
>>>>
>> about the subject at
>>
>>>> hand to give the casual or passing user/viewer
>>>>
>> some insight into the
>>
>>>> background of the work and of the body of work in
>>>>
>> which the work
>>
>>>> finds its place....
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Geert
>>>> http://nznl.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 29-jun-2005, at 20:06, Lewis LaCook wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Good discussion here, but....
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> What exactly IS the function of the critic? Does
>>>>>
>> the
>>
>>>>> critic preprocess the material that will
>>>>>
>> eventually be
>>
>>>>> written into the canon? Or does the critic sniff
>>>>>
>> out
>>
>>>>> and discuss work that the reading public would
>>>>>
>> be
>>
>>>>> interested in?
>>>>>
>>>>> I mean, wouldn't art be more effective if it
>>>>>
>> actually
>>
>>>>> engaged users instead of requiring users to go
>>>>>
>> out and
>>
>>>>> get a degree and read looooong boring essays on
>>>>> curatorial practices?
>>>>>
>>>>> bliss
>>>>> l
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --- furtherfield <info@furtherfield.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Lewis,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> surely it is not always the task of the art
>>>>>>
>> itself
>>
>>>>>> to engage people,
>>>>>> but rather that 'may be' it is up to the people
>>>>>>
>> to
>>
>>>>>> get engaged on thier
>>>>>> own terms when the mood takes them?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> marc
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If the art can't engage a casual user, what's
>>>>>>>
>> the
>>
>>>>>>> point?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> bliss
>>>>>>> l
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>
>>
> *********************************************************************
>
>>
>>
>>>>>> ******
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> No More Movements...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lewis LaCook
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>
>>
> -->Poet-Programmer|||http://lewislacook.corporatepa.com/|||
>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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> **********************************************************************
>
>>
>>
>>>>> *****
>>>>> No More Movements...
>>>>>
>>>>> Lewis LaCook -->Poet-Programmer|||http://
>>>>> lewislacook.corporatepa.com/|||
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>> ____________________________________________________
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>>
>> --
>> _______________________________
>> Pall Thayer
>> artist/teacher
>> http://www.this.is/pallit
>> http://pallit.lhi.is/panse
>>
>> Lorna
>> http://www.this.is/lorna
>> _______________________________
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>
>
> **********************************************************************
> *****
> No More Movements...
>
> Lewis LaCook -->Poet-Programmer|||http://
> lewislacook.corporatepa.com/|||
>
>
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DISCUSSION

AT-AT Attack on Google Maps


The Google Maps API has been released, and people are hacking away:

http://www.vestaldesign.com/maps/starwars.html

The main avenue for the interrogation of aesthetics is now not theory
but web service hacking. If the masses can hack up their own
aesthetics, what need is there for professional artists?

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: Re: NYT review of ArtBase 101


On Wednesday, June 29, 2005, at 04:07PM, Lewis LaCook <llacook@yahoo.com> wrote:

>If the art can't engage a casual user, what's the
>point?

That it's art rather than lightweight entertainment?

There are plenty of things that a casual user won't be engaged by.

It's their loss.

- Rob.