robmyers: February 2006 Archives

An Interesting Question From openbusiness.cc

By Rob Myers on February 28, 2006 5:17 AM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

openbusiness.cc have a questionnaire for artists at the moment. One of the questions is "Have you ever used a CC work without incorporating it into your work? E.g. listened to CC licensed music"

Is this free-software-style concept of "use" of a cultural work a useful abstraction or a distortive import? Is it good to regard the consumption, propagation and creation of culture as "use", or is there better terminology to be had?

Geek Aesthetics 5

By Rob Myers on February 28, 2006 5:01 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

In Soviet Russia, social realism paints you!

Artist steals body parts to cast as sculpture. Jailarity ensues.

Media Mutandis: a NODE.London Reader

By Rob Myers on February 28, 2006 5:00 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Media Mutandis: a NODE.London Reader
(edited by Marina Vishmidt, with Mary Anne Francis, Jo Walsh and Lewis
Sykes)

is out in early March 2006

http://publication.nodel.org

Publisher: NODE.London
ISBN: 0-9552435-0-5
Pages: 300, Paper Perfectbound
Price: 5 UKP/6 USD/7 EUR

NODE.London [Networked, Open, Distributed, Events. London] is committed to
building the infrastructure and raising the visibility of media arts
practice in London. Working on an open, collaborative basis, NODE.London
culminates, in its first year, in a month long season of media arts projects
across London in March 2006.

The NODE.London Reader (surveying art, technologies and politics) projects a
critical context around the Season of Media Arts in London March 2006 and
provides another discursive dimension to the events of October 2005's Open
Season. It engages debates in FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software),
media arts and activism, collaborative practices and the political economy
of cultural production in the present day. It includes essays and artist
projects from Sabeth Buchmann, Toni Prug, Armin Medosch, Simon Yuill, Chad
McCail, Critical Art Ensemble, Jo Walsh, Richard Barbrook, Michael Corris,
Harwood, Agnese Trocchi, Matthew Fuller, Rasmus Fleischer and Palle Torsson,
Brett Neilson and Ned Rossiter, Matteo Pasquinelli and Francis McKee. It is
available at a range of NODE.London public events throughout March, and as a
POD (Print On Demand) through the website. Check the website for further
outlets as they become available, as well as news and additional texts.

Media Mutandis carries a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
licence. http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk

What Would Nixon Do?

By Rob Myers on February 28, 2006 4:58 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I just got "Endtroducing" and "Zoolook" in the post. Zoolook I've heard before, Endtroduing is new (I was an UNKLE fan though). Add this to my Utah Saints records, some Negativland and DJ Sooky, and I'm having a sampletastic time at the moment trying to get my head back into a free art mode.

Music and art is a cliche, but it is my cliche (or possibly I am its).
Dithering is the opposite of creative block, but in many ways even more destructive. At least with creative block you have to run with an idea when it comes up... :-)

Thought For The Day

By Rob Myers on February 27, 2006 8:18 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The food industry don't try to stop you making snacks.

The sex industry don't try to stop you making love.

So why are the content industry trying to stop you making music?

Business Insultant

By Rob Myers on February 27, 2006 8:16 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

An individual should focus on their core competences to provide best value. This is their unique value proposition. If we look at the most prominent value adding individuals in business and the media, their most striking feature is their rudeness. Rudeness is therefore the core competence and unique value proposition of the people who add the most value to a business.

Many companies hire business consultants to add additional value. Since the best way they can add value is by being rude, the bland behaviour of current consultancy practice is clearly short-changing business. What is needed are incredibly rude individuals. The ruder the individual, the more value they are adding to the company.

I have therefore decided to become a business insultant. Companies can hire me to be rude and threatening to staff. Especially to management, who are best placed to pass on received value. I don't think that twenty thousand dollars a day is too much to ask for such a vital service.

Career-Building Bullshit That Cares

By Rob Myers on February 27, 2006 6:25 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

...the ideals of engagement and social effect are often the journalistic or administrative sentiments of art world redemptiveness. Career-building bullshit that cares.

- Art and Language (letter to Artmonthly, Sept/Oct 2000).

So much for Adorno. And art as an instrument of social regeneration in deprived areas. :-)

Forum On Open Content | Tom Chance's website

By Rob Myers on February 25, 2006 7:10 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The excellent Tom Chance on Free Culture:

Forum On Open Content | Tom Chance's website

Commons Knowledge

By Rob Myers on February 21, 2006 8:31 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

This is the first issue of Free Culture UK's new fortnightly newsletter.
Please pass this on to others who might be interested. To get your upcoming
events, hot news or event reviews in add them to the relevant wiki page.
Feel free to make suggestions on how to improve this as well.

February 2006, no.2
Stable URL: http://www.freeculture.org.uk/newsletter/2006/feb20

UPCOMING EVENTS

Forum on open content, part of the Open Knowledge Foundation forum series.
* What: A chance to discuss what open content means, how we can best create,
distribute and promote open content, and more. With speakers: Paula LeDieu
(iCommons), Cory Doctorow (Writer and Campaigner), Tom Chance (RemixReading
and Free Culture UK) and Jennifer Rigby (BBC Creative Archive)
* When: Wednesday 22nd February 2006, 7-9pm
* Where: Stanhope Centre, Marble Arch, London, W2 2HH.
* More information: http://www.openknowledgefoundation.org/okforums/content/

Node.l
* What: A festival of open, collaborative media arts and infrastructure in London.
* When: Throughout March 2006.
* Where: Venues thoughout London.
* More information: http://nodel.org/

Remix Reading open media lab
* What: Come and learn how to use arty free software, or show off your skills
to others, at our first open media lab. Just turn up with an open mind.
* When: Saturday 4th March 2006, 10am-4pm
* Where: Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading
* More information: http://www.remixreading.org/node/708

Remix Art Competition
* What: A competition looking for the best visual remixes of Reading's local
area and of a selection of local art. The eleven best pieces will be an
exhibition in April. Non-locals may enter but ;-)
* When: Deadline is 6th April 2006.
* Where: The show will be at Riverside Museum at Blake's Lock, Reading.
* More information: http://www.remixreading.org/node/714

FREE CULTURE IN THE UK NEWS

"As the UK government reviews patent and copyright law to boost Britain's
creative economy, Becky Hogge says democratic access to knowledge ought to
benefit too."
* http://www.opendemocracy.net/media/free_culture_3266.jsp

"CNUK relaunches as a free culture and free software project"
* http://cnuk.org

EVENT FEEDBACK

Remix Reading held their first open media lab with just two PCs as part of the
relaunch of a local arts centre. People with varied backgrounds showed
interest in free software and free culture.
* http://tom.acrewoods.net/node/409

That's all folks!

Pirate vs. Ninja (2)

By Rob Myers on February 21, 2006 6:39 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A ninja ambushes a pirate in a hail of shuriken. The pirate ducks behind a mast, blocking the shuriken, as his parrot flies at the ninja squawking obscenities.
The ninja reaches for his nunchaks to dispatch the parrot, and the pirate takes a swing with his cutlass. But the moon suddenly shines across the deck from between two rocks off the coast of the island, and the ninja melts away into the fleeing shadows.

Geek Aesthetics 4

By Rob Myers on February 21, 2006 5:54 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Mr. T pities the fool who doesn't believe in art for art's sake.

All your plinths are belong to us.

Damien Hirst roundhouse kicked a shark so hard that the water around it turned to glass. He sold it to Saatchi as "The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living".

If you had an infinite number of Jake and Dinos Chapmans at easels they would eventually produce the complete works of Goya. Only they would suck.

Not art: a urinal. Art: a signed urinal. Duchamp: a signed urinal that the admissions committe for an open exhibition refuse to accept, despite saying they'll take work form anyone who pays the admission fee.

Students for a Free Tibet : Google Alternatives

By Rob Myers on February 21, 2006 5:44 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Students for a Free Tibet : Google Alternatives

Google don't have to want to be evil. They just have to create resources that evil can use.

: : Speak Up > Computer = Fart, or Digital Immersion Is Not Design : :

By Rob Myers on February 21, 2006 5:43 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

: : Speak Up > Computer = Fart, or Digital Immersion Is Not Design : :

Whenever someone asks me what they need to know in order to go into design, I always give the same answer.

You need to be able to draw.

You don't need to be Leonardo, God knows I'm not, you just need to be able to move a marker over a sheet of A4. Because if you can't then you won't be able to abstract your ideas away from the medium you will have to realise them in. And you will become a slave of the medium rather than its master, starting from a point of limitation rather than an area of potential.

Freedom Of Expression

By Rob Myers on February 21, 2006 5:38 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Norm: Here's a statement by the UK branch of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq and five other organizations in defence of freedom of expression

Pirate Vs. Ninja (1)

By Rob Myers on February 20, 2006 7:10 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A ninja drops caltrops in the path of a pirate. The pirate has a peg leg, and so hops though the caltrops unaffected. He slashes at the ninja with his cutlass. But the ninja has disappeared in a puff of smoke. The pirate cleaves the smoke with his blade to no effect.

An Excerpt From A Recounting Of An Adventure By Baron Munchausen

By Rob Myers on February 19, 2006 6:29 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

"And so, " said the Baron "the ringing of my diving bell allowed me to lift from the ocean floor the heaviest pearl ever discovered. I later had it made into a brooch by the finest craftsmen in the land."

"But Baron, " interjected the host, "surely such a weighty trinket could never actually be worn. It would be worthless!"

The Baron paused but for a moment.

"My dear sir, as you know, the defining characteristic of art is its inutility. The value of art is therefore in direct and inverse proportion to its utility. Given that a pearl brooch of unwearable weight must be entirely useless, its artistic value must therefore be infinite."

Free Culture UK Newsletter

By Rob Myers on February 19, 2006 6:24 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Free Culture UK are starting a bi-weekly newsletter for free culture events and information of interest in the UK. We need your event announcements, article links, and news alerts. We're getting the first one together here:

http://www.freeculture.org.uk/CategoryNewsletter

If you're involved with something that isn't listed then this is down to ignorance rather than malice on our part, so help us fix it! If you don't want to hack the fc-uk wiki, email Tom Chance, email me, or email the fc-uk list and we'll put your item in if it's relevent.

Geek Aesthetics 3

By Rob Myers on February 18, 2006 7:11 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Jeff Koons doesn't sleep. He waits.

Your dog wants relational aesthetics.

Leonardo has a posse.

I, for one, welcome our new badly painted found image overlords.

Free Culture Roundup

By Rob Myers on February 18, 2006 6:50 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

As the UK government reviews patent and copyright law to boost Britain's creative economy, Becky Hogge says democratic access to knowledge ought to benefit too.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/media/free_culture_3266.jsp

Rowan Wilson of OSS Watch, fresh from the GPL v3 Launch event at MIT, will attempt to explain what is being planned, how it will be carried out, and how you can have your say in the consultation process.

Roads to Freedom: The Making of the GNU General Public License Version 3, Oxford, 17 February 2006

(OK, bit late there).

Transcription of the launch event of the GPL 3.0 draft:

http://www.ifso.ie/documents/gplv3-launch-2006-01-16.html

Creative Block

By Rob Myers on February 16, 2006 7:48 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I don't think I really have a creative block. Just not enough time and too much real life stress.

I was going to do some image remixing this month but that is turning out to be a bigger project than I thought. I'll have to take more time to prepare it thoroughly. I'm also very concerned that it must not be an academic or merely political exercise. If bad art comes from the best of intentions, illustrating theory makes for abject drivel.

I'd like to do more on draw-something, ahead of schedule. The colour images and the valentines hacks show how well it is coming on. But I need to know what draw-something is going to do next. Maybe better colour, maybe better composition, maybe better forms. Maybe I should just get on with it.

I think I will retreat to my sketchbook for a while. And maybe blog a little. Sitting at the Wacom staring at a blank screen isn't helping. :-)

Mute On The Commons

By Rob Myers on February 16, 2006 7:41 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The new series of Mute magazine has a number of insightful and constructive critiques of Creative Commons and the whole knowledge commons idea(l):

Mute 2.1

Download the PDF or buy a print copy and help support Mute.

Art Page Updated

By Rob Myers on February 16, 2006 7:38 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I added links to paintr and various versions of draw-something at:

http://www.robmyers.org/art

I'll make pages for ds and paintr in time, but I just needed to remind myself how much I've achieved over the last year (and this year already) given my current creative block. :-)

Forum On Open Content

By Rob Myers on February 16, 2006 7:35 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

= Forum on Open Content =

* www: http://www.openknowledgefoundation.org/okforums/content/
* registration (optional): email okforums-info [at] okfn.org
* previous forums: http://www.openknowledgefoundation.org/okforums/

== Where and When ==

* When: Wednesday 22nd February 2006, 7-9pm
* Where: Stanhope Centre, Marble Arch, London.
* Directions: http://www.stanhopecentre.org/about/directions.shtml
* Map: http://tinyurl.com/dlrpt

* Who can attend: public. Registration is optional but useful so
please notify us if you can via: okforums-info [at] okfn.org

* Who is speaking:
* Paula LeDieu, iCommons
* Cory Doctorow, Writer and Campaigner
* Tom Chance, RemixReading
* Jennifer Rigby, BBC Creative Archive

== Subject Matter ==

This forum will focus on 'open content', that is works such as books,
music, and films which are provided under terms that allow for free
access, redistribution and re-use.

Open 'content' it would seem is everywhere what with Yahoo announcing
there were over 50 million web pages licensed under Creative Commons,
Microsoft teaming up with the British Library to digitize 100,000 out of
copyright books (under the aegis of the Open Content Alliance), and the
BBC piloting the Creative Archive project which will make large sections
of its back catalogue available for free online.

The forum provides a chance to discuss these dramatic changes as well as
to ask important questions such as:

* What exactly does 'open' mean? Does it mean 'full' freedom to
access, redistribute and re-use or are restrictions such as those in CC
non-commercial licenses allowed?

* How should we promote the creation and distribution of open content?

* Who will be producing open content and how will it be funded?

* Will there be an 'open content' revolution

* To what extent do monopoly rights such as copyright hinder, or
help, the development of open content?

= About the Open Knowledge Forums =

'''Promoting open information - getting it, using it, sharing it'''

The Open Knowledge Forums are a series of informal gatherings centred on
the subject of open information/data. It aims to bring together those
/producing/ and those /campaigning/, and to cover everything from
software to the law. The sessions are usually held in the evenings in
London and their format is to have talks by three or four different
people followed by a general discussion.

The Open Knowledge Forums are organized by the Open Knowledge
Foundation: http://www.openknowledgefoundation.org/

Boing Boing: Looking for graphic designers' Creative Commons stories

By Rob Myers on February 15, 2006 6:33 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Boing Boing: Looking for graphic designers' Creative Commons stories

Are you a graphic designer who's had positive experiences with Creative Commons, either in getting paid work by sharing your works, or by making great designs by keying off of someone else's work? I'm writing a magazine article and I would love to chat with your.

(Heart)

By Rob Myers on February 15, 2006 3:16 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

200602141511-2 200602141512-1

I deleted the code that I added to draw-something to make the series that these images are from as I wasn't going to make them public.

Technorati Tags: art, generative art

An Artists's Notebook

By Rob Myers on February 14, 2006 11:32 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Not safe for work, but very cool:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/968/1002/1600/moleskin2.jpg

Inspired by Ed Ruscha, I bought a Moleskin notebook to take notes on my paintings as I work on them. I was finding myself trying to remember things that I had done on previous paintings, and this way I can keep track of that stuff for future use.

After I finish something, I write down the color mixtures, and anything else I might need to remember. It's already come in handy at least once on this painting.

Technorati Tags: art

Micro Talespin

By Rob Myers on February 14, 2006 11:31 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

An absolute classic of artificial intelligence and generative narrative, the storytelling system Talespin in a Common Lisp implementation:

http://www.eliterature.org/2006/01/meehan-and-sacks-micro-talespin/

Technorati Tags: generative art, lisp

“Wet Dream”

By Rob Myers on February 12, 2006 8:29 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Wet Dream

A system for rich pixels with multiple colour properties and wetness, to simulate water colours.

Geek Aesthetics 2

By Rob Myers on February 11, 2006 10:25 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

1. Exhibit urinal.

2. ???

3. Art!

Technorati Tags: aesthetics

Remix Reading Art Competition

By Rob Myers on February 11, 2006 10:21 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Remix Reading is now running a competition looking for the best visual remixes of the local area and of a selection of local art. The eleven best pieces will be shown in an exhibition to be held in the Riverside Museum at Blake's Lock, Reading, from the 28th-30th April. The closing date for the competition is the 6th of April, and winners will be announced on the 14th.

http://www.remixreading.org/node/714

Technorati Tags: art, free culture

Crap Comedy On The BBC

By Rob Myers on February 11, 2006 8:45 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

Tittybangbang

The comic equivalent of pulling your pants down, sitting on the photocopier, and breaking it.

Hyperdrive

"So we're not going to get another series of Red Dwarf until they do the film. Which isn't going to happen. So let's copy Red Dwarf. What is Red Dwarf about?"

"Well, boss. It's a group of slobbish English people on a starship a million light years from earth some time after the end of the world who make a series of classic science fiction scenarios comic due to their ineptness and personality defects."

"So that's a group of slobbish English people on a starship, their ineptness and their personality defects. Right, film it!"

The Comic Side Of Seven Days

Smug failure to amuse or shock from people you'd punch if you met them at a dinner party, but are unlikely to because you're not usually invited to the same dinner parties as bourgeois RADA refugees on the BBC comedy equivalent of the Restart scheme.

DJ Spooky on Sampling

By Rob Myers on February 11, 2006 6:20 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The sample is an interrogation of the meaning we see in a song, of its emotional content lifted away like a shroud from a dead corpse, only to be refitted and placed on another body. That's the deal – you renew the cloth by repurposing the fabric.

”Paul Miller, Rhythm Science.

Technorati Tags: free culture, sampling

Pirate or Ninja?

By Rob Myers on February 11, 2006 6:18 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Imagine you have an aesthetics with just two categories, pirate and ninja.

Is the Mona Lisa pirate or ninja?

Technorati Tags: aesthetics

CC Art Competition In Reading

By Rob Myers on February 9, 2006 8:18 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Have your work shown in an exhibition running at the Riverside Museum at Blake's Lock, 28th-30th April! We are running a competition to gather eleven great pieces of work that interpret the local area and local art.

http://www.remixreading.org/artcomp

Work must be CC licensed, in traditional media or hardcopy, and may be remixed from existing CC images of the area around the town of Reading (in England).

Technorati Tags: free culture

Linus Is Wrong on DRM

By Rob Myers on February 9, 2006 7:49 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Free networks require free content. Free content requires free software. Free software requires free systems. Free systems require free networks.

Technorati Tags: free culture, free software

Stallman Rejects CC

By Rob Myers on February 9, 2006 5:39 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

As your question illustrates, people have a tendency to disregard the differences between the various Creative Commons licenses, lumping them together as a single thing. That is as mixed-up as supposing San Francisco and Death Valley have similar weather because they're both in California.

Some Creative Commons licenses are free licenses; most permit at least noncommercial verbatim copying. But some, such as the Sampling Licenses and Developing Countries Licenses, don't even permit that, which makes them unacceptable to use for any kind of work. All these licenses have in common is a label, but people regularly mistake that common label for something substantial.

I no longer endorse Creative Commons. I cannot endorse Creative Commons as a whole, because some of its licenses are unacceptable. It would be self-delusion to try to endorse just some of the Creative Commons licenses, because people lump them together; they will misconstrue any endorsement of some as a blanket endorsement of all. I therefore find myself constrained to reject Creative Commons entirely.

http://www.linuxp2p.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=10771

Technorati Tags: free culture

Orange Is CC Attribution Only

By Rob Myers on February 7, 2006 6:37 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

It looks like Orange (the Blender Movie project) will be Attribution 2.5 (CC-BY-2.5).

http://orange.blender.org/blog/a-call-for-textures

I'm so glad it's not NC or ND I have nothing to say on the subject of copyleft. :-)

Technorati Tags: free software, graphics

Petards

By Rob Myers on February 5, 2006 10:58 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

"The right to freedom of thought and expression ... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," the Vatican said in a statement.

via: http://blogs.gnome.org/view/uraeus/2006/02/04/0

This being the case I suggest that the Pope stop claiming that Christ was the son of God and is the saviour of mankind because this deeply offends the religious sentiment of believers in one or two other religions.

Technorati Tags: free culture

Gtk+ on MacOS X Native. Woo!

By Rob Myers on February 5, 2006 7:40 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

http://developer.imendio.com/wiki/Gtk_Mac_OS_X

http://micke.hallendal.net/archives/2005/10/gtk-macosx.html

This is Gtk+ 2, and it looks pretty far advanced.

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease.

- Rob.

Technorati Tags: free software, graphics, hacking

Problem Solved

By Rob Myers on February 5, 2006 6:15 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Don't like it? Don't look at it. Problem solved.

The rest of Europe must not make the same mistake that the UK made during the Satanic Verses affair.

Technorati Tags: free culture

draw-something draws an arc

By Rob Myers on February 4, 2006 8:34 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

200602032329

200602032330

draw-something now has circle and arc primitives as well as polylines. Rectangles should be supported as well but I won't add ovals until the next round of development. I'm going to finish the current round of development this weekend.

Technorati Tags: generative art

Free Culture Roundup

By Rob Myers on February 1, 2006 9:39 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The Support Of Religious Hatred Act has hit the wall of freedom of speech:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4664398.stm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aVBExP88cdiA&refer=uk

The RIAA's actions are not in the artists best interests. Says artists' agent:

http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2006/01/27/riaa_actions_not_in_artists_best_interest.php

The MPAA pirated a movie. We need DRM to prevent this kind of abuse!:

http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2006/01/27/because_you_know_movie_piracy_is_wrong.php

MSFT: Our DRM licensing is there to eliminate hobbyists and little guys:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/msft_our_drm_licensi.html

The New Police and Justice Bill includes this gem of an amendment to Computer Misuse Act, which is intended to criminalise the development, distribution or possession of 'hacker tools':

http://talkpolitics.users20.donhost.co.uk/index.php?title=another_fine_mess

Technorati Tags: free culture

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