# near future interview with leading garmes site a hubristic near future interview ur-ludonaut 'theodore miles': consider "robert what" - perhaps because the peculiar questions it enjoys asking aren't yet being asked. yet rather than fill some obscure ecological gap unknown to players it opens up gaps in garme space spaces for unexpected dialogue and delightful (simulated) play one of those odd lonely sites of postmodern speculation accidentally discovered by insomniac websurfers around 3am such alien fiction is still largely unread unknown even ignored - somehow oddly alive with a dark energy signature that stimulates and invigorates existential nerve endings dulled by endless memetic cat gifs and garming celebrity clickbait articles yet its challenging satirical mix of garmes criticism / development parodies and hyper-ballardian dissections of culture clean and energize; it provides the fresh smell of a grassy bio-magnetic field of endless virtual data about plastic forks immediately after a lightning storm of experimental speculative literature in some as-yet unmapped cognitive kansas file under #random magazine recently caught up with robert what and its amateur play theorist in residence robert what theodore miles (tm): i've been 'playing' through the site for some now as you like to put it - you've some interesting ideas and projects brewing there robert what (rw): thank you for your kind and accurate terms and for this exciting opportunity to play with a fellow researcher theodore miles: why did you decide to initially perform this interview robert what: partially as a way to (for example) pro-retroactively play with current ideas regarding the complicated relationship between the mainstream garmes press and indie developers of new play forms theodore miles: what ideas are those robert what: ideas concerning the often false artificial arbitrary andor actually diffuse boundary lines between developers players and reviewers; one can be all these within the space of a single interview coding session or playthrough theodore miles: what kind of place is robert what - is the whole thing a kind of garme (caption id="attachment_35778" align="aligncenter" width="616") weird 'garme' in quotes(/caption) robert what: we prefer the far more general "play state" to garme. those are open-at-both-ends questions we continue to ask ourselves. it's not that we're just choosing to be obtuse for the sake of seeming hip and clever in the half silvered anti-mirror but that such questions are important ones they're interesting and not so easily answered by simply sticking to labels logos and manifestos. 'having said that' one might also simply say we represent "a virtual simulation in which researchers play imaginary garmes of big science" theodore miles: we? you mean robert what? how's that roleplay going for you - any valuable insights or handy hints for fellow players robert what: we currently don't know any other way to play through this research nor do we really understand robert. here's a potential hot tip though: read "halo" by tom maddox theodore miles: which leads neatly into our next question. how do you define 'postmodernism'? robert what: by simply asking "how does anyone define postmodernism?" we're basically unsure as you are. how do you define it theodore miles: it's something to do with claims to knowledge right? the problem with 'how we know what we know' robert what: well firstly it might not just be a thing but more a dynamic process in and of machine language or code theodore miles: the same kind of language garme that philosopher wittgenstein talked about robert what: possibly though at this juncture we'd prefer to write something which modifies and updates this "language garme" in line with larger unexpected evolutionary trends in virtual reality bio-tech theodore miles: what would they be robert what: 'simply' good questions no doubt theodore miles: are you saying robert what is a way for players to ask better philosophical questions robert what: perhaps all this is simply pop philosophy eating its own tail to the point where an infinitely dense conceptual singularity occurs and the player emerges in another dimension entirely - some fantastic alien thought experiment big scientists often refer as "this one" theodore miles: how can you still not know what all 'this' is robert what: "commerce" is the goal which often currently prevents us from more truly un-alienating ourselves from the means of our own deconstructive non-production of quality garming dis-content theodore miles: surely nobody talks like that - except perhaps deliberately strange online internet based conceptual meta-artists who attempt to model themselves on cheesy characters seen in old un-rewound straight-to-betamax cronenberg movies robert what: we prefer players to see us as liking to see ourselves as coldly calculating artificial intelligences from some near future version of the psychedelic liquid internets where garmes won the reality war theodore miles: so where do you get your ideas and inspiration.. robert what: you had to ask it's from the same rough region of conceptual space most hyper-modern researchers do. that is from our terminal boredom our critical admiration for experimental postmodern literature / narratives and our bizarre fascination with the webs (caption id="attachment_35779" align="aligncenter" width="499") appropriate drugs for robert what(/caption) theodore miles: so what's a "researcher" and how does being one relate to the idea of "big science" robert what: you make these questions up or do they write them down for you theodore miles: a team of fully de-anxietized space monkeys on cheap imported e's cut with art laxative are paid minimum intern wage to break open fortune stale cookies and misread the contents robert what: sounds legit. to be seen to answer your attempt at an obsolete question a researcher may be considered another way of saying player. as for "big science" that one we like to call an "imaginary garme" theodore miles: and for next inevitable question robert what: imaginary garmes exist and play out only in or via imagination. a garme of the mind theodore miles: you mean like "the floor is lava"? like that robert what: almost except with imaginary garmes you're more pretending to play "the floor is lava" theodore miles: you mean pretending to play an imaginary garme robert what: perhaps not even that since most imaginary garmes only ever seem to get played semi-consciously theodore miles: so what are you suggesting about what it is to be a researcher of big science robert what: possibly that it's all dark imaginary lava - the floor you your foolish random 3am laboratory logbook full of pointless minor excursions into questionable conceptual territory few care about theodore miles: so where does that leave us players robert what: possibly where we were before during and after we thought we'd arrived at our unknown destination - that is imprecisely nowhere theodore miles: huh there's a popular feeling that even nowhere is a place a definite location right robert what: being truly nowhere implies not even being or existence - its so profoundly devoid of common signposts not even nothing exists there - and yet another precise way of suggesting nowhere is "anywhere you currently happen to be playing (/at) big science" theodore miles: so robert what is an existential proposition a mode of being in andor for imaginary worlds robert what: that's a good way to describe it - we admire your play style theodore miles: thanks. so what does - robert what: sorry at this point we'd like to interrupt - just to say don't you often find in interviews you'd wish that both parties would stop talking about what they're talking about - andor claim to or want to be seen talking about and simply talk about nothing at all theodore miles: sometimes the best movies are those in which nothing happens robert what: too often nothing whatsoever happens in precisely the most allegedly eventful movies theodore miles: speaking of movies what are you reading into at the moment robert what: we just finished "the internet is not the answer" by andrew keen (caption id="attachment_35818" align="aligncenter" width="230") andrew keen - the internet is not the answer(/caption) theodore miles: what did you think? robert what: what did you think theodore miles: it had several important things to say about the internets as simply another extension of the unchecked unnatural growth of modern techno-capitalism culture(tm) robert what: what about keen's near total misunderstanding about p2p theodore miles: keen has as much a feel for the non-consumerist subtleties of online life as my mother had for playing head over heels on the zx spectrum. it might feel good however to cherry pick ir book for the correct bits and present them as one's own mint ideological coinage robert what: so what do you consider the near future of robert what? what do you think is our more actual larger project? the projects we list at robert what often seem mere tests of the resilience of potential players in our fully recreational psychopathology theodore miles: if pushed from the front like an artificial vat grown angel falling backwards into the near future i'd say it appears your larger truer artistic research project is nothing less than the reshaping of modern psychedelic alien hyper-reality robert what: a bold claim. how might that occur theodore miles: we're both already embedded in "big science" as researchers are we not robert what: possibly. it's difficult to say that this imprecise neural juncture theodore miles: you mean all this time and we're still co-llating? when do we get to present our tentative results to our fellow players for p2p review robert what: patience. we might already be doing so. thanks for the interview theodore miles: does this mean i pass the test? am i now a true player-researcher of the alien fictions of 'big science' robert what: consider research its own achievement null player one // republic of bob