Raquel Meyers – The Tool is the Message

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Let’s begin here: A myriad of new technologies is accelerating our world at a breathtaking pace. I’m not interested in what seemingly great benefits artists and designers will get from AI – because we can see that the risks and damage to our surrounding systems are already incredibly high.

In the last years, I have learned to know quite a few people who are actively opposing the unquestioned adaptation of potencially or obviously dangerous technologies – not only since the rise of AI, but long before. I have met artists, designers, journalists and activists who not only adress the risks, but above all develop, prepare and provide alternative perspectives. This raises a lot of exciting questions that we should pursue: What do we gain by reverting to simple, transparent and open technology, to technology at human scale, as E. F. Schumacher once put it?

Spanish media artist Raquel Meyers, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Prague in 2023, teaches us this very well. One of her most important tools is the Commodore 64 (1982-1992), the first ever commercial home computer. She has been using it like a drawing tool for almost 20 years, using letters and symbols to “type” fabulous illustrations for stories and philosophical reflections. She sometimes exhibits them – then they are mostly shown on old tube televisions, on obsolete technology, on discarded devices from electronic waste.

When I got to know Raquel and her work, one thing became clear to me: Her tool is her message! It’s fascinating: no matter what Raquel’s pictures and installations display, the medium and the tool have this strong aura, inheriting her worldview. You simply can’t reproduce that digitally. Suppose – a quickly generated graphic that looks exactly like one of Raquel’s imaginative illustrations never has the same aura, the same value. Her story, her tools, her attitude, that media, the struggle – all this comes together to form a powerful overall statement.

Raquel’s poetic works are based on letters and symbols. In media art, there is a term for this: Textmode. In one of her essays, she writes that text as a medium can be used as a sharp critique of Techno-Maximalism, a mindset, a cultural driver toward the latest, fastest, biggest, or most complex technologies.

Techno-maximalism is so prevailant that we catually do not recognize it anymore. It screams at us, it is a violent theft of our precious attention. Textmode however is quiet, subtle, silent. Raquels Textmode illustrations are not very detailed, but they don’t need any detail as they speak for themselves. The tool is the message! (a remix of Marshall McLuhans famous phrase “the medium is the massage”)

I interviewed Raquel Meyers and we talked about all of this. Another stroke of luck with Raquel is that she deals with her work in writing and manifests her thoughts in essays. In the show notes you will find many links to read more and dive deeper.

Articles by Raquel Meyers

1	Meyers, R. (2022). Concrete Redundancy (불필요한 콘크리트). SeMA Nanji Residency, Seoul. PDF link
2	Meyers, R. (2020). Relics and Rubble of the Future (Reliquias y escombros del futuro). AusArt Journal for Research in Art, 8(1), pp. 283–293. UPV/EHU. (Spanish) Read article
3	Meyers, R. (2018). Electroshocked Techno-Narcissism (Narcisismo tecnológico electrocutado). AusArt Journal for Research in Art, 6(2), pp. 233–243. UPV/EHU. (Spanish) Read article
4	Meyers, R. (2017). Keys of Fury – Type in Beyond the Scrolling Horizon. WiderScreen 1–2/2017: Tekstitaide – Text Art, Finland. PDF download | Online version
5	Meyers, R. (2016). Is It Just Text? In Moe, Hallvard, and Hilde Van den Bulck (Eds.), Teletext in Europe: From the Analog to the Digital Era (pp. 31–49). Göteborg: NORDICOM. PDF download | Publication page

Books & Lectures

1	Agamben, Giorgio. (2023). When the House Burns Down: From the Dialect of Thought. Translated by Kevin Attell. London: Seagull Books.
2	Berardi, Franco. (2019). Breathing: Chaos and Poetry. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e).
3	Wells, Liz. (2011). Land Matters: Landscape Photography, Culture and Identity. London: I.B. Tauris.
4	Parreno, Christian. (2021). Boredom, Architecture, and Spatial Experience. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
5	Erfurt, Stephan, and C/O Berlin Foundation. (2021). Send Me an Image: From Postcards to Social Media. Edited by Felix Hoffmann and Kathrin Schönegg. Translated by Sylee Gore. Berlin, Göttingen: C/O Berlin ; Steidl.
6	Slade, Giles. (2009). Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
7	Dormer, P. (2008). The Culture of Craft: Status and Future. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
8	Virilio, Paul. (2009). Bunker Archaeology. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Films

1	Curtis, Adam. (2021). Can’t Get You Out of My Head. BBC. Watch archive

Links

• https://www.raquelmeyers.com/
• https://timrodenbroeker.de/on-ai/