Raquel Meyers' Vivid Artworks Are Made On A Hacked Commodore 64

All images courtesy Raquel Meyers, except where noted otherwise. 

Did you know there’s an international community of artists, gamers, hackers and fans devoted to the Commodore 64 gaming computer? Or that this 80s-era PC is the subject of festivals, online museums, and entire artist repertoires?

Neither did we, until we lost ourselves while scouring the internet, and ended up in the heart of a bustling fan community. Over at CSDB.dk, for example, users are uploading new Commodore 64-crafted videos and tracking global C64 events on the daily.

One group in particular, Hack n’ Trade, has been doing this since 1993. Comprised of musicians, graphic artists, and coders, the Sweden-based collective has put out more than 55 videos, videogames, and music scores—all composed with the C64 unit as the medium.

And although the 9-member group has gone through almost as many line-up changes as Fleetwood Mac, a few of its contemporary stars are just as active in their own projects as they are beneath the Hack n’ Trade moniker.

One such artist, Raquel Meyers (the Hack n’ Trade member known as AcidT*rroreast), performs her solo work at festivals and museums worldwide. On top of creating richly textured C64 pieces that stitch together like Mexican or Navajo Indian weavings, she also equips another dated technology, Teletext, to help her create the glitch-art universes that are unmistakably hers.

We decided to a feature a few of these works, in GIF, still, and video form. Check them out below. And if you’re in Israel next week, you can catch her performing her Teletext performance Thread of Fate live at the Musrara Mix #14 Festival, in Musrara.

Pink Snow from Raquel Meyers on Vimeo.

THE YETI SOUND MACHINE from Raquel Meyers on Vimeo.

Keep up-to-date with Raquel Meyers over at her website.

Follow Johnny Magdaleno on Twitter: @johnny_mgdlno

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