Fingers of Doom, 2:36 TRT
Text composition by Type In on the Commodore 64 by Raquel Meyers
Music by Dan Brännvall
Code by Johan Kotlinski
Nostalgic, retro, obsolete or limited are rhetoric qualities earn by constant repetition. This is the terrible fate of ‘Fingers Of Doom’, a Type In animation made on Commodore 64 and built character by character rather than frame by frame. Text is used unadorned and rought-cast, like concrete. A raw Imaginary in favor of a new understanding. A place for revealing instead of burying. Technology as knowledge of a skillful or artful use and not as zombies hiding in garages waiting to be reanimated or parasite.
KYBDslöjd means drawing by typing. The grid is the framework and the text characters are the Instructions. A complete method of craft stored in text using technologies from the late 70s and early 80s like the Commodore 64 personal computer, Teletext and Typewriters.
KYBDslöjd was born in the C64 Swedish demoscene (2011-2014), the software and BBS technique were developed in several demo parties. As result, every key press is recorded and save as an animation. What you type is what you get (including the mistakes, there is no Control-Z / undo). You cannot make corrections, so any unintended strikes force you to start all over again. The simplicity of the colors and the character set make the process of making PETSCII (ASCII for the Commodore 64) straightforward. Text-mode graphics have a lot similarities with the brutalist architecture. Text is used unadorned and rought-cast, like concrete. Brutalism has an unfortunate reputation of evoking a raw dystopia, and the C64 evokes an “object of nostalgia”. But nostalgic, retro or limited are rhetoric qualities earn by constant repetition.
Text-mode is technology (as knowledge of techniques) and knowledge of a skillful or artful use. Technologies like the Commodore 64 or Teletext are not zombies hiding in the garage waiting to be “reanimated”, archive for contemplation or sell as collector’s object. They are meant to be use and not parasite.
KYBDslöjd is the joy of text-mode. A brutalist storytelling about technology and keystrokes.
Raquel Meyers is a Spanish artist who defines her practice as KYBDslöjd (drawing by typing). The grid is the framework and the character set are the instructions. KYBDslöjd is the joy of text-mode. A brutalist storytelling about technology and keystrokes.
Since 2004 she has performed at festivals like Transmediale, Fylkingen, Piksel, Mapping, La Casa encendida and Cimatics, at 8bit events like Tokyo Blip Festival and the Playlist exhibition, as well at Liste Art Fair Basel, Ars Electronica Center, Alingsås Konsthall, Bonniers Konsthall, Xpo Gallery, Click New Media Arts Festival, Alt_Cph, BEK- Bergen Center for Electronic Arts, LABoral and iMAL.
17 Days Video Series 