Interviews
Interview with Raquel "AcidT*rroreast" Meyers
Published in Vandalism News #62
Performed by Carl "Grip" Svensson during late winter/early spring 2014.
V) Hi AcidT*rroreast, please feel welcome to Vandalism News!
You are perhaps most known on the scene for your story-centric PETSCII demos produced together with Goto80 and Mathman. But you also create art outside of the scene, combining different techniques such as teletext, stop motion, photography etc. in installations, print, music videos and more. Would you mind telling the readers a bit more about yourself - where do you live, are you a full-time artist or do you have a dayjob to finance your creativity? Do you have any interests aside from creating art?
A) I'm a Spaniard living in Sweden unemployed artist? animator graphician looking for a job place to live lost in space and time.
My life is so complicated right now so there is not so much to talk about. I like to scream as another interest so,
I'm looking for a grind-core band or similar who wants a singer. I have references, look for Tr1c3!
V) What inspires you and awakens your curiosity?
A) Everything!, like books, comics, films, animations, music, nature, cities, people, slöjd, internet …
As an example, right know, Jim Woodring comics and Y?ji Kuri animations from the 70s.
I'm a curious person and there is always something to be learned.
The day I can't answer the question I will be dead.
V) What demotivates and bores you?
A) Pretentious crap, bad music, manipulations, lies and too much bla bla bla.
V) When did you get interested in computers? What was your first own computer? When did you start using the C64?
A) I was pretty late with computers. I had a analog photo camera first than a computer.
I born in a very small town in the south east of spain, so computers were something mysterious and luxury.
My brother has an MSX and an Amstrad, I played with basic a bit, but I guess it was not the time.
My first Computer was an Amiga 1200 in 2000s, but it wasn't until I have a C64 in 2010, where I felt "I'm home, this is the shit".
so I'm not a nostalgic.
V) When did you first hear about the demo scene? What made you curious about it and what was your first scene experience?
A) My first contact with the demo scene was my brother, he showed me Crack Intros from games he copied, and I was fascinated with it. The problem was he is 6 years older than me and I was his little sister, so at the end it didn't work. But the important things always come back and my curiosity wasn't fill. I thank Goto80 to bring it back to me.
V) You've made quite a few story demos for the C64. Your early productions mainly feature classically animated PETSCII, but lately you've released productions where one can see a cursor move about and progressively build up the image, altering it as the story progresses. When making the latter kind of demo, how much do you plan ahead and how much is "stream of consciousness"?
A) Since is live typing I always need a starting point, like a theme, atmosphere or a character.
But I don't plan things so much, I improvise a lot a go with the flow.
Sometimes I have some drawings but I need to visualize it in my head, even dream it.
Once I see it, I can go.
What I like it's that requires patience and concentration, you cannot do anything else.
I just sit and type and the rest of the world can burn around me.
V) "Dansa in" was one of my favourite demos from Datastorm 2013, featuring the more classic version of PETSCII animation. Later that year at BFP everyone was blown away by the progressively drawn "20 Years is Nothing". Which kind takes longer to produce? Do you like doing one kind more than the other?
S) "Dansa in" was made frame by frame, in the old school animation style. I have a lot of fun doing it.
But "20 Years is Nothing" was a challenge, because it was just live typing and nothing else (no ctrl-z, copy / paste, pre-saved and so on).
I had one chance to make it, and if I fucked it up, I have to start over again.
It was a lot of pressure but I enjoyed it so much.
V) You seem to be working closely together with Goto80 both on the scene and off. What comes first - graphics or music? Is it some kind of symbiosis?
S) Goto80 and I know each other for a really long time (since 2004). His music is been always an inspiration. It's a 50% thing. Before I need the music first but nowadays I don't. It's not something for sure, depends. But both things should mix in symbiosis at the end.
V) Quite a few people who started out on the scene have later in life moved on to explore their creativity in arts or music outside of the scene. You seem to have done the opposite journey. What are the differences and likenesses between the art world of today and the demo scene?
S) To be honest I always put myself in No man's land, like in a limbo. What I like about the demo scene is that the only important thing is what you do. You don't talk about it, sell it, PR and so on. In the art world sometimes is more about the talking and who you know than the work by itself. I respect more the demo scene than the art world because of that. It's brutally honest.
V) The scene can be quite conservative at times: a demo is a demo is a demo. I happen to like this particular kind of unwillingness to change, and the challenge of creating within certain set boundaries. What would you say are the creative strengths and weaknesses of the scene community?
S) I think that's the reason that make it special, it's not about art or conceptual bullshit. You have one chance, take it or leave it. Maybe it's a bit conservative, but the rules are clear: Give your best! I like that.
V) What kind of software do you use for creating teletext graphics?
S) I use a software called Cebratext to make the pages, but the great thing is able to create my own Teletext signal thanks to Peter Kwan, who develops a teletext inserter called VBIT (http://teastop.co.uk/vbit-pi/install.html).
So I can use teletext live for performance and installations. Now I'm working in a project called "Thread of Fate" where you can choose your destiny with a teletext page (info here: http://www.raquelmeyers.com/2014/musrara-mix-14-festival).
V) Huge thanks for your time!
S) Thanks for including me!