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

Upcoming Exhibitions (NYC)


-IID42 Kandinskij @27+ wrote:

> Nikola Tesla

I've been patient heaven knows. I've learnt the rules and how it goes

> and the National Romanian Spandau ballet?

Always believe in your soul. You've got the power you know. You're
indestructible, always believe it.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: Garden of Memespelunk


> For me SL is still The Palace meets VRML..., in a proprietary environment.

The Palace became popular around the same time as Worlds Chat and
Alphaworld, which were 3D environments.

VRML multi-user servers tended to be proprietary. Blaxxun still isn't
Free Software.

The SL client is Free and the server and avatar formats are under
discussion. So SL as a whole is on the way to being Free.

Even if SL is *only* as interesting as the multi-user VRML of a decade
ago, it has two important advantages over VRML 2:

1. It is complete and it works. VRML 2 destroyed any company that tried
to implement it and VRML 2 plug-ins were buggy for years.

2. It exists at a time where people have the computing power and the
experience of distributed creativity to actually use it.

Perhaps SL is just the world catching up with the VR of a decade ago,
with the technology, economics and social structures in place to cope
with that false start. But even this is quite something.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: cheesy SL


Damian Stewart wrote:

> a lot of the people who
> inhabit second life actually do have quite active (first) social lives.

Well there you are then. :-)

> and those that don't aren't going to find SL a stepping stone toward a
> 'real' social life. on the contrary, i think.

There is socialization of a kind to be had in SL. As I say it is at
worst better than isolation.

> anyway my point in bringing this up was to try and figure out why there
> is this perception around SL that people who play it don't have lives.
>
> whenever i've visited SL (even the 'art' parts) it seems to be just a
> whole bunch of incredibly unattractive avatars standing around staring
> blankly at each other, with the occasional twitchy body language, and
> everything is *ugly*, *ugly*, *ugly*.

That sounds like a private view in RL. ;-)

Try Luskwood or somewhere further from the entry area.

If things are ugly then you can get some land and make something beautiful.

> as an outsider i just don't get it. i don't understand why people would
> spend so much time on something that seems ultimately completely
> self-serving.

There is a long history of aestheticized social affect that SL can at
least aspire to (drag, dandyism, masked balls, Commedia, LRP, fancy
dress, subcultural style). People like to dress up and socialize under
aestheticized assumed personas. This is widespread enough that we can
assume it's socially useful. I believe SL serves this function in a
broadcast media age.

> my personal take on things: i write code, yes, i'm a big
> geek actually, but all of the geeking that i do has as its end an object
> that is destined to be shown to the world outside - either as an
> interactive installation piece for uninitiated members of the general
> public, or as a music performance for non-geek members of the
> music-listening public.
>
> but with SL, no-one's going to see it except for other SL users. if this
> is going to change, then this no-life perception has to be addressed
> head-on. this isn't happening, and so SL will remain marginalised.

The world outside comes into SL in the same way it comes into a gallery.
SL is a less exclusive social setting than a gallery at private view
time.

> i've watched some of Gazira Bebell's videos and they just don't touch me
> at all. it's kind of interesting but i don't feel like there's someone
> /performing/. there's no risk. part of performance is the fact of having
> someone flesh and blood right there. but in SL, everything matters less,
> there's less emotional engagement, and so it's so much harder to care.

Early films were shot like stage plays. It wasn't until people stopped
trying to make films into (bad) plays and developed an actual grammar
for the medium that film got really interesting.

It is trivially true that an avatar is not a flesh and blood person on a
stage. Nor is an image of a person in a painting or a photograph. If
they don't touch you then someone isn't using (or evaluating) the medium
effectively.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: cheesy SL


Damian Stewart wrote:
> Rob Myers wrote:
>
>> There is an incredible amount of creativity in SL. It is generalized
>> drag, universal dandyism, a simulacral social canvas. Not all the
>
> stencil spotted being deployed at Ars Electronica this year:
>
> 'go get a first life'
>
> discuss

Dude, it was a *stencil*.

At *Ars Electronica*.

Problematizing *VR*.

It's either deeply ironic or the product of someone who has no mirrors
in their apartment.

SL isn't stopping a potentially revolutionary proletariat from rising up
and displacing an oppressive society. It's uplifting the
basement-dwelling demographic into a pseudo-social environment with
realworld ramifications. This is a gain.

The alternative to playing Dungeons & Dragons with your friends wasn't
getting a life, it was sitting in your bedroom with no friends.

- Rob.

DISCUSSION

Re: RHIZOME_RAW: cheesy SL


Jim Andrews wrote:
> Could somebody who knows SL really well please send some URLs to strong art in SL?
>
> I'm not very familiar with SL, have only visited a couple of times, but would like to see some interesting SL work.
>
> Not 'you should have been there' types of links, but 'here is the real thing, and it's there for all to see whenever they want' sorts of links.

Second life is inherently aesthetic and performative. The art is being
there. Ask a dandy or a soi-disant situationist.

That said:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/08/top-10-art-inst.html
http://sl-art-news.blogspot.com/
http://slfront.blogspot.com/
http://slartmagazine.com/
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/04/16/artists-struggle-but-dont-starve-on-second-life/

- Rob (Yarrel Fox on SL).