Abstract:
More discussions exist on the field of glitches in music composition than there ever have been[1]. In music classification, the glitch has even been elevated to the prestigious status of having its genre. However, there have been very little discussions of the practice of creating and capturing visual manifestations of glitches in today’s highly signal perfect media and pixel perfect computer interfaces. This seems paradoxical in relation to earlier trends of discussing qualities of media and is testament to the fact that we are becoming more silent as technology finds its own voice. The underlying theme also in this study, was to find out what it is that drives visual glitch artists in their desire to create glitches and to seek an answer to the question, can the glitch be an effective medium in the ‘pantheon of artforms?’[2] - While Glitch Music has experienced a greater amount of exposure, other forms of Glitch Art have remained more obscure. Some have not been conceptualized as art at all.(Motherboard 2002) This dissertation aims to address this and surrounding issues.
1. Introduction
Alternative introduction:
"…aesthetics saturating
the work, but no works of art.."
– Gustav Metzger, Leeds Evolution Conference 2003
To create a work of art that
conveys meaning we must first study the aesthetics and potential of the media
we are working with.
Its not easy to begin writing an introduction about any area, more so when there isn’t a great deal of formal writing or criticism on the subject in existence or when the area is so varied in scope that it simply cannot be dealt with effectively in the course of a short study.
However, if two sentences and a question can provide a good outline and an idea of what I have tried to write here, then this dissertation is all about ‘visual glitch aesthetics!’
It aims to ask some defining questions about the fundamental characteristics and importance of the Glitch in conceptual and high/fine art.
In the realm of Aesthetics, is the glitch something of
beauty that has to be captured and fetishised, or is it merely a sub layer of
communication that we can do without?
1.1. Statement
Aside from personal interpretation, the views I express here are directly influenced by the discussions I have had with the talented practitioners of this field. I have spoken to the artists, commercial designers, and the potential audience of glitch related events who in a sense, go against the grain and try to explore, appreciate and understand an area which is rather difficult to explain to the average non technology-inspired public. I am forever indebted to these people and their contribution to this study.
At the heart of this study, there are many questions, which go unanswered. This is primarily due to the subjective nature of aesthetic study[3], if we are to examine the creative possibilities of an area without limiting it.[4]
What is certain though is that I see my own journey exploring the potential for glitches as a completely edifying journey, and one that I would like to pursue beyond the scope of this dissertation. I hope you enjoy it too and if you feel inclined, please feel free to express your own opinions on the Glitch Aesthetic Dissertation companion site open forum. [5]
1.2. Methods
1.2.1. Research
Primary
Discussing glitch related ideas in relation to the practice and interests of friends and artists seemed to be the natural way of finding out more about what conventional tastes are when it comes to glitches. This was mostly conducted by emailing, phoning, presenting, and talking face to face with those people, I logged the outcomes and insight gained in the form of weblog entries[6], forum posts and calendar items. They can be found in the appendix to this dissertation as well as an insight into my own interest in this area and how this study started.
In terms of consolidating my primary research findings
within existing academic frameworks and disciplines, I found it imperative that
I try to correlate and incorporate my arguments with the prevalent
philosophical arguments and discussions on aesthetics of learned scholars such
as Adorno and Danto in their books “Aesthetic Theory” and “The abuse of Beauty”
respectively. The views of some of the glitch music scene’s most vocal
ambassadors namely, Kim Cascone, Autechre and Beflix have also played a part in
the later stages of reflection and analysis.
I should also mention lesser-known but nonetheless visionary lecturers such as Andrew Darley and W Charlton who opened up new doors of perception in their more accessible books, and notable personalities such as John Cage and Lev Manovich, Paul Levinson and Benjamin Fry whose works helped contextualise my study in other fields.
Secondary
Secondary research came from wide ranging choice of recent publications and historical texts in the field of aesthetics and glitch theory- I found that there seemed to be a distinct shortage of formal writing at present on the practices of visual glitch art. Books and websites, which have been used, are cited in the bibliography and the websites referenced also appear on the links section of the dissertation companion site.
1.2.2. Research / practice
In 2002, as part of my studio project work, I became
interested in ways of mapping the invisible (radio waves) onto the visible and
showing loss of communication in a visual manner. Throughout the writing of
this dissertation in addition to contacting my friends who were glitch
enthusiasts and practitioners, I have been focusing on creating my own glitch
imagery, through experimentation, trial and error. I
was interested in the creation of glitch based artwork and discussing ways of
using those in my practical project Consequently,
this work ties in with the theme of a studio experiment that accompanies this
dissertation. In which I seek to use the glitch in conveying a facet of the
Middle East’s turbulent history. Ultimately I seek to show that the glitch can
be a perfect medium that utilises a common communication medium, such as a
humble postcard to convey meaning and narrative.
**Crown revolution here.
2. Glitch Autopsy
2.1. Definitions
2.1.1. Terminology
To go by the dictionary definition of the word “glitch” would be narrowing its scope too much. Even though this field of visual glitch exploration has a small following, the found glitches or the works created are vastly different.
We need to reach a definition that tries to encompass the different works and practices prevalent in the production and presentation of glitch artwork.
Therefore, it is important to define two terms that delineate the most popular related approaches. This dissertation deals mostly with the first but the first cannot exist without a study of the Second.
The “Pure Glitch” and the “Glitch-alike”
2.1.2. Pure Glitch
Is the result of a Malfunction or Error
There may be a great deal of scope in the discussion of where we can find glitches and what can be classed as a Glitch.
Primarily, in a theoretical, scientific and non-art sense, a glitch is assumed to be the unexpected result of a malfunction. The word glitch was first recorded in English in 1962, during the American space programme, namely in the writings of John Glenn where it was used to “describe the problems” they were having. Glenn then gives the technical sense of the word the astronauts had adopted: “Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical current.” (John Glenn, cited in American Heritage Dictionary 4th Ed (2000) )
So in a sense the glitch has always been associated with the definition of a problem. It’s a word used to describe the result of a situation when something has gone wrong. Admittedly, it is also a ‘problematic' area of study.[7]
According to the Motherboard[8] in their advert for the glitch symposium, Norway 2002, "Glitch" is a commonplace expression in computer- and networks terminology, meaning to slip, slide, an irregularity, a malfunction or a "little electrical error". [9]
In my discussions with Glitch artists and digital artists, the glitch I have described was also referred to as a real or pure Glitch, a pure and unpremeditated digital artefact, which may or may not its own aesthetic merits.[10]
2.1.3. The Glitch-alike
Glitch artists either synthesise glitches in non-digital mediums, or produce and create the environment that is required to invoke a glitch and anticipate one to happen, as we will discover in Chapter 4. Because of the intrinsic nature of this imagery and its relation to pure glitches, both in terms of process and viewer perception, I felt the need to form a word that adequately describes this artefact’s similarity with actual glitches and presents it as an obviously separate entity. Thus the term “Glitch-alike” came about to fulfil this role.
Therefore, Glitch-alikes are a collection of digital artefacts that resemble visual aspects of glitches found in their original habitat.
Note: This dissertation deals with glitches and their
visual manifestations,. From this point, for the sake of brevity whenever the
word “glitch” is mentioned, it refers to a pure glitch visual and
“glitch-alike” as created -synthetic imagery.
2.1.4. Related Concepts
Layer
In my survey of known glitches, which briefly included digital video compression artefacts found in images, “crackles, pops and hisses” in audio (Harger 2003) and alternative data visualisations that resembled the pure glitch, I came to the realisation that glitches are mostly a result of miscommunication or mistranslation when transferring data from one environment to another. They exhibit themselves in the surface of other media perhaps as a layer of visual communication that shows something has gone wrong. They are sub media. This layer or gloss like surface quality is one that perhaps makes glitches seem slightly superficial, but careful deliberation on content and subject matter is what changes that perception.
Content
Most of the discussion surrounding the creation of glitches, concerns the glitch-alike. The process of consciously creating a glitch-alike by an artist is implied. It is a desired effect carried out on sampled or copied data, where the original stays safe and intact, unless of course there is a reason for obliterating the original data directly. The Glitch imagery may be unrecognisable from its source data, but the source is usually implied or can be perceived in an obvious manner in order for the glitch process to fulfil its objective, in particular when it comes to conveying meaning.
Example:
In digital art meaning usually follows a specific use of content, In the following work, I seek to use the glitch in order to play with perfect image that celebrities convey of themselves. By using the glitch I am trying to expose a weakness, the face of decay in beauty and the simple way in which perhaps a rumour mill in a newspapers gossip column can easily defile and tarnish a celebrity’s perfect image.
**pic shows Angelina Jolie, in two states, glitched and non glitch
Beautiful
In the realm of the glitch though, full spectrum of
glitch there are cases where the techno-fetishistic or exploratory motive
is more prominent than the actual subject or content. The creation of Glitchalike
artwork doesn’t have to result in the conveyance of meaning, it can be
fulfilling and satisfying as a process[11] in
itself, or it can be for ‘Personal usage’ which ultimately leads to some form
of ‘Enlightenment’ [12]
Cory Arcangel provides one example of this in ‘Data Diaries’. In which he utilises raw visualisations non-visual data, namely his computers random access memory.[13]
In
this case, the use of the glitch can be perceived as an attempt to explore or
facilitate the fetishisation of technology. In this work, conveying a
particular meaning through choice of subject matter is conceivably not the
ultimate goal.
** pic of data diaries.
Unwanted
“ …‘failure’ has
become a prominent aesthetic in many of the arts in the late 20th century. ” (Cascone 2000)
In the world of perfect communication, glitches are undesirables for which countless error checking protocols exist with the sole purpose of eliminating them. In terms of representation, of the ones that don’t make it to the visualisation stage, are merely represented as a trace log of error occurrences that could be used to eliminate further instances before they happen.
New advancements in communication, it seems, seek more bandwidth, more resolution and more clarity as hardware capability and processing power increases. There seems to be no time to stop and appreciate the qualities of the glitch, as a textural feature of digital media.
Maybe we can find the notable exception in amongst filmmakers[14] and in the glitch art scene that exhibits a deep appreciation of communication errors.
Appreciated
“Another aspect it seems is that some superseded technologies become appreciated not for their actual output or function but for the sheer pleasure of experiencing them – as we would look back and enjoy a work of art.” (Levinson 1999)
Today’s trend of perfection in communication reminds us less of our past when communications were imperfect, anything that glitches brings us closer to experiencing that past. This is partly why glitches are sometimes coupled with retro aesthetics[15], and it may be part of the reason for their appreciation. Glitch artists who were children of the eighties and nineties may comment on this especially.
[refer to Bruce Sterling’s dead media mailing list archives]
Other aspects of their appreciation may actually lie in culturally significant factors such as media reach within society, attitudes towards communications technology or more fundamentally have something to do with the Glitch’s visual aesthetic appeal.
Part of the Glitch’s emotional appeal lies
2.1.5. Anecdotal Origins
According to a nettime post dating back to 1997, Alexei Shulgin claims net art is a ready-made, and it came about as a result of a glitch.[16]
Glitch art as a genre encompasses premeditated glitch-alikes, uses a facet of technology that deals with incorrect transmission, computation and deliberate corruption. Its multiplicity is enough to warrant distinctness from the often narrowed down field of net art, which strives on immediacy, and its existence on a wide reaching network.
The network itself is one of many mediums or environments in which glitches appear, but a glitchalike can be designed and localised to an installation.
Whereas, The rise of net art came as a result of the proliferation of networks and their expansion, glitches have seemingly been around for far longer as we will find in the next section.
2.2. Visual Qualities
2.2.1. Visual history of glitches
Jackson Pollock is popularly quoted as saying:
"the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old form of the Renaissance, each age finds its own technique."
History:
Cascone’s history of Glitch music and its historical contextualisation really emphasises the role of the 1990’s techno – electronica culture as being a very important influence in today’s glitch music genre.[17] I was adamant that the appreciation of visual glitches goes much back much further than the 1990’s or 80’s and home computer retro aesthetic imagery that is often associated with that time. In my early visual investigations, I was pleasantly surprised to find a wealth of glitch-alike imagery and the notion of the accident in art spanning across decades of the use and misuse of media in artistic practice. Most notably, I would like to draw attention to the cubist movement.
“…Pablo Picasso and …Georges Braque splintered the visual world not wantonly, but sensuously and beautifully with their new art”
(Pioch 14 Oct 2002 - 18 Sep 2002)
**Juan Gris here “image juan gris painting.jpg”
When you look at paintings by Juan Gris, Georges Braque or Picasso, and compare them to certain types of digital glitch imagery, there is a reflection that there could be a history involved with what we see in the glitch world that relates to what the prodigal artists of the cubist movement or other movements have done and the techniques they have used.
In the following pages I have compared the qualities of the glitch to the work of some of these artists in a visual fashion ** less stated qualities of the glitch
Piet Mondrian
**piet
mondrian images, cubes
Within the lines, strokes, grids and stark geometric forms that Mondrian depicted in his paintings. We see that there are lines on the same painting that vary in terms of stroke and thickness. There are areas where the ink runs and splatters. His stroke could have been perfect but it is not, it is obvious that he deliberately put his own signature in the work by varying elements and disturbing the perfection. In his book ‘On abstract art.’ Briony Fer, (1997) refers to a permanent state of differentiation which involves not only “shifts in the disposition of the planes and asymmetric grid” but also in terms of scale.[18]
This variation is the global constant that Mondrian appears to have used in his work and can be likened to digital video broadcast glitches and to a technique replicated in some Glitch-alikes.
** pic of scale changing in my leaders faces video works.
** pic of detail on mondrian’s brush strokes
Seurat
One of the great impressionists whose distinct pointillist style, and meticulous attention to rendering detail could be likened to the works of glitch artists, Tony Scott and Brian Kearns in the way they manipulate the individual elements of their preferred mediums to detail, until the aesthetic criteria they seek is achieved.
** retro imagery
**cosmic locksmith closeup on pixels.
** tony’s pixel closeup
Gerhard Richter
“Back in 1953 Susanne Langer proposed that the symbolic space created in painting was not real but ‘virtual’. Starting in 1963, Gerhard Richter showed her to be accurate” (Nechvatal 2002)
Gerhard Richter’s unique ultra photo realistic style, in his “Woman Descending the Staircase” shows meticulous attention to recreating the style of TV imagery on canvas, right down to conveying scan lines, colour distortion and lens blurring. The same is true of many of his other paintings, such as which also exhibit elements of glitch appreciation, its layer like qualities and their power to convey meaning, and affect the viewers relation to the subject. In his work he is transforming what could be a mere newspaper photograph emulated on canvas, to a dynamic image that immediately creates associations such as uncertainty, fear, containment in a highly emotive package.
According to Danto (2002) “By 1963 Richter had begun painting the blurred but precise images that became his trademark. Richter's marvelously exact Administrative Building of 1964 captures the dispiriting official architecture of German postwar reconstruction, especially in the industrial Rhineland.”
2.2.2. Visual Characteristics of Glitches
“our conception of electronic media seems to have been very visually dominated and tied up to the more general link between the visual and the rational” (Vanhanen 2001)
According to Eide, “The glitch may not be categorisable” (Eide 2002) but present day manifestations of the glitch and glitch-alikes have distinctly prominent and common features that can be stated here:
Fragmentation:
“All dimensions that are known are present
simultaneously” (Grieman 1990)
It could be argued that a glitch shows the whole, like the cubist movement’s “God's-eye view of reality: every aspect of the whole subject, seen simultaneously in a single dimension” (Pioch 14 Oct 2002 - 18 Sep 2002)
** quote relates to new vis future
Sometimes in a glitch everything is broken down either to its individual elements, or parts of the image are shifted and incorrectly translated. If it were on physical canvas this creates the effect of tearing up the image with a razor and pasting the strip in other areas of the canvas. In the digital domain this effect is almost always horizontal due to the way images are read and rendered on computer.
These fragmentations may also result in splinters and sharp contrasts in colour between two regions of an image.
Fragmentation or segmentation of the original image also relates, to mistranslation. Dramatic tonal changes also change the mood of the image, and can be seen as a form of fragmentation.
Fragmentation also has the effect of drawing attention to an otherwise perfect image no matter how subtle. More on this can be found in the realm of visual psychophysics.
http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~itti/attention/images/
Replication/repetition:
Partial causes for programmatic glitches are infinite loops, division by zero’s and null pointers, [check the null pointers reference]
The unanticipated consequences, of such programmatic structures when mapped on the image may result in the cloning or repetition of parts of the image. Because a glitch is unanticipated and sometimes coincidental and kind of regular repetition makes it quite complex.
Part of the appeal that is present in this added complexity ties in with the idea of multiplicity expressed in the aesthetics of noise. (see Sanglid 2002 Noise as multiplicity)
On the other hand this kind of patterned replication makes computer glitches ultimately distinct from nature, which uses irregular patterning intentionally. (Palmer 1972)
These patterns that computer glitch replication produces can also be likened to a digital wallpaper that screams of the reproducibility of digital art, while maintaining the fact that they are accidental and unique.
**
pic of glitch with replication
Linearity:
In the majority of cases, whenever visual information is being recorded or is transferred from one medium onto another, it is broken down to its individual components. Those individual components can be pixels, colour separation layers, or graphite granules on paper, in glitches, these elements seem to merge with each other in rows to form lines.
**pic of video glitches GREEN with lines going across recorded
Image(10) linearity.jpg - Image(11) linearity.jpg (footnote on how these images were created.)
Tony Scott (Scott 2003) signifies his liking of glitches in op art, he is a fan of Bridget Riley’s work, rectinliear or very distinct line forms.
Complexity:
As with many things in nature, the most beautiful manmade decorative ornaments are visually quite complex, they follow patterns, have repetition and please the eye with their harmonious choices of colour.
Glitches and Glitch-alikes can be visually complex. They can illustrate complexity in things we take for granted, such as the operation of transferring a digital file from one location to another on the Internet. As such, each file has to be broken into packets, addressed individually, sent and resent if any packets are lost, and finally the file has to be reassembled at the receiving end. This process is invisible to us and is quite reliable, yet this Operational perfection in everyday technology is taken for granted. When glitches happen, they alert us to the presence of processes that can go wrong in communications technology.
Tristan Spill, a London based freelance commercial artist and video maker says “The following glitches were from an incomplete mpeg download and an interrupted JPEG image. They are not mannered recreations but actual screen captures. I have no idea how to recreate them. The beauty is that these can be read as more than just mistakes. They can be read as revealing the background processes that go on invisibly during the transmission of digital images. And that these miscalculations and miscommunications contain their own form of visual logic.”
Glitches can also surprise us with their complexity. Sometimes changing a few variables affecting a simple design element on computer can cause a crash and a visually pleasing glitch to occur. But this computer generated complexity also worries some glitch artists who fear this makes their work easily brandable, or indistinguishable from digital trash.
The graphic programmer Lia[19], mentioned she likes changing how many sides a simple object can have so that her design program glitches and produces unexpected results.
[to write on, randomness and complexity and its
particular aesthetic appeal Glitches are complex, they appear random, are they
random.. refer to von bayen
Physical manipulation of medium
So far the discussion of glitches has been limited to the two dimensional visual domain. If we consider Gustav Metzger’s Auto destructive movement and Acid[20] paintings as cousins of the Glitch, the physical manipulation of the medium becomes a source of visual input. It also opens up a whole area of discussion about the glitch’s ‘viractual’ potential [21].
** pictures of dave walls work, data bending
2.2.3. Medium and Art Form, Polymorphism.
The genre of the glitch and its role in a conceptual framework can be considered as an art form. In its visual and practical manifestations though, glitches and Glitch-alikes have a distinct medium like quality, they exist within other media but their often out of place characteristics have the capacity to convey a message and that is what makes them an effective medium, sub-medium or accompanying medium.
3. Glitch Aesthetics
“The genre of “glitch,” … emphasises the failures of hardware and software through misuse, abuse, and experimentation,” (Veen 2002)
how can failure be beautiful?
In this Chapter, we will discuss that question in relation to the ideas of others.
** could have adorno here or gustaves quote
3.1. Aesthetic Theory
3.1.1. Subjectivity : differing views on beauty
Whether its Bachelard, Baudrillard, Adorno or McLuhan subjectivity reigns in the discussions of Aesthetics and there are plenty of counter [22] arguments to counter any claim made by one person. Any views expressed on the Glitch-alike are also a result of subjective thought.
3.1.2. Situational perspective, dealing with contextual meaning
It is hard to consider much of modern art today without taking into account its situation and placement. The situation a work has been placed in and its placement and properties in space, often hint at how we should go about reading it. Sometimes art is about taking something out of its original context and recontextualising it. In the case of the glitch, the process of capturing glitches in their original habitat, creating glitchalikes and placing them within a suitable viewing environment, is as much about its end situation or repurposing as it is about tweaking it or using it to convey meaning through choice of subject matter.
Situation can also greatly enhance meaning, especially when the work is geo-politically charged.
3.1.3. Glitch, creativity and commercial process
“there are several ways of dealing with anomalies, Negatively, we can just ignore them, just not perceive them, or perceiving we can condemn, positively we can confront the anomaly and try to create a new pattern of reality in which it has a place.” (Douglas 1966 cited in Fer)
In the process of creating glitch-like imagery, the exploratory, raw nature of pure glitches is an unshakeable fact. It provides a plethora of creative possibilities which artists have in the past utilised and will probably keep on using. There is evidence to show that even commercial artists who are heavily duty bound find accidents and glitches, to be a creative force in their work.
Stefan Sagmeister recently admitted that he has started to involve mistakes and accidents in his work. When asked about accident and chance he mentions a point that “when I accept the accident I give it a chance. Example: Projects comes back 'wrong' from the printer. Often wrong is just that, wrong, but every once in a while wrong is better.[23]
3.1.4. Relation to artistic practice –
According to Foam (Fo.AM 2000) The glitch can be seen as
1. as digital art aesthetic,
2. or as a component of the creative process.
(see appendix for full text)
We can see how the glitch is used in music and the realm of the static or moving image, but it is now even extending into other areas of creativity such as dance. **Frank Stassens video snapshot (Stassen 1999).
3.1.5. Relation to Painting
Leonardo Da Vinci insisted that ‘that painter who has no doubts will achieve little’, and he advised artists to seek out inspirations for their paintings in the stains on walls” (Briggs 1994)
As described in Chapter 2, “even the obsessively rectilinear Dutch modern Painter Pieter Mondrian left drips and faint wavers in his straight lines to indicate the presence of the human creator behind the abstract mathematical shapes. Michael Angelo hewed his sculpture by following the grain in the marble” (Briggs 1994)
Turner, the painter of the industrial revolution apparently had bad eyesight, a pair of glasses recently auctioned at Sotheby’s, show the extent of a possible eye condition, in his case a cataract. Mcgill says, his theories do not diminish Turners genius "The paintings are superb" - but there’s no mystery why he painted that way: he was painting exactly what he saw."[24]
3.1.6. Relation to photography and Film
Celluloid
film and gelatin prints are both synonymous with film grain, it's a well known
quality of analogue photography and cinematography, that has pride and place in
the manuals of film aesthetics.
The
aesthetic of chemo-mechanical reproduction also has a whole culture behind it.
The random detail is much sought after and an image reproduced without these
artifacts being visible is considered quite bland and possibly lacking in
Walter Benjamin’s definition of Aura in a highly reproducible work. (see Art in
the Age of mechanical reproduction.) The director Steven Speilberg refers to “a
magic about chemistry and film” in a wired interview ** reference or footnote here.
See appendix. He talks about the molecular grain of film and goes on to
say “The screen is alive, the screen is always alive with chaos and excitement,
and that will certainly be gone when we convert to a digital camera”. [25]
3.1.7. Relation to Screen: Film
There are three main aspects to the use of Glitch-alikes on screen, to convey meaning or emotion, subliminate, to faithfully reproduce a particular film style.
Films:[26]
the meanings or emotions implied when a Glitch-alike is used are numerous.
1. in Darren Afronofsky’s ‘π’ the glitch not only sought to show the main character's struggle with his physical condition.. It also imbued a sense of conflict and uncertainty over the ideas expressed. In Tristan Spills words the effects were used to convey a state of psychosis.
2. In the Blair witch project, the flashes and flutters used at the end of the film undoubtedly intensified the emotional sense of fear.
3. In Donnie Darko the knife blade hitting the mirror induces intense flashes. Glitch-alikes, are also used by HiRez, on the website accompanying the film to enhance and convey the interactive narrative.
4. in Fight-club, the subliminal effect of flash glitches are used to enhance characterisation and invade the preconceived sense of time and space in the film.
5. in Armageddon, the live video sequences conveyed on screens are wrought with interference. The frequency of the glitches increase over time in a sequence in which mission control on earth are trying to communicate with the asteroid drillers[27], ** Armageddon screencaps.
In many older films made in the 80’s and 90’s, the interface between humans and computers is often portrayed as one that is wraught with static. In numerous films[28], the instant a computer display terminal is turned on, static or noise is fills the screen briefly and disappears or plagues the communication or operation.
This could have been to show the viewer very visually that something is being initialised, or there is an obstruction in the way of communication, to show long distances or adding tension to the possibility and chance that it might not work. The screen directors are therefore relying on perceived notions of how technology works and addressing it with glitch-alikes.
3.1.8. Relation to screen: The small screen, war reporting,
One area where the authenticity of the work relies on inherent glitches in the work are frontline war reports, where the erratic camera movements, and even the blood splattering against the lens can be construed as elements of glitch that are consumed with the work.
Incidentally another aspect of this was demonstrated in a film. In “wag the dog” smoke and shaky camera moves of war reportage were being recreated in a studio as part of a government cover-up in the storyline. In JFK, also the actual documentary footage shown of the assassination was interspersed with created, glitchy camera footage mimicking the footage. This caused a lot of controversy when the film was released.
3.1.9. Section on Advertising
“the natural glitch causes immediate interest” (Eide 2002)
There is something seductive about technology for which we have no control over. It presents the interesting unknown. In my personal observations, some car adverts and alcoholic beverages are trying to be cool by using glitch-alikes. **more development needed,
**BMW ‘some people are better than others’
**reef exotic fruit juice laced with vodka caps
3.1.10. Section
on Web Design
[Waiting to hear from odopod, who recently did
glitchy redbullcopilot, talk about HiRez who did requiem for a dream site and
many others where the glitch figures largely in the conveyance of meaning]
3.1.11. Relation
to invention
There are dozens of examples throughout history of
inventions that came about as a result of a physician or chemist discovering
something by accident, while they were trying to do something else.
Let me give an extremely simple personal example.
The electricity supply is wrought with dozens of surges
and spikes which manifest themselves made the hifi in the turn off in the room
I was in, I glanced over and I saw my infra red enabled java phone, this made
me think maybe I can write a java app to turn the hifi on in the morning as an
alarm.
3.2. Glitch Philosophy
3.2.1. Fetishisation
This study of the glitch can in parts be seen as developing understanding of a fetish.
Much in the same way that “Fetishism manifests itself masterfully around the automobile. The possession of ‘autonomy of movement’, ‘speed’, ‘power’” (Velásquez 2000) The core reasons for computerisation or the subsequent consumption of computing periphery and imagery, can be regarded as a fetish.
In terms of glitch imagery becoming fetishised, at first glance this point may seem paradoxical and conflicting to Velasquez’s claim, here that the error or weakness inside the computer becomes fetishised not its seemingly positive constructive traits, like the conveyance of perfect images.
But according to some, visual glitches can expose the power of computer[29] technology, they reveal the background processes and therefore are positively fetishised.
3.2.2. High and Low Art
In the introduction to his book Visual Digital Culture (2000), Andrew Darley states that in the nineteenth century the idea of the “artist as genius” and the distinction between “light” and “low” form of art, was consolidated. He then goes on to say “within this evaluative framework” the newer technologically informed and commercial modes of culture, photography, the cinema, the amusement park - came to be regarded as manufactured diversion; mere ephemera, forms of pure spectacle.
Even today, in the post modernist, post industrial reality such evaluation continues to exist, in that glitch art can be considered as pure spectacle, as a vapour trace of digital technology, as digital ‘trash’. but such interpretations have little impact on the philosophical or critical understandings of glitch art or indeed the practice of creating glitch-alikes.
3.2.3. Ars Accidentalis
“Our century is the century of huge accidents: the Titanic and Chernobyl.” (Paul Virilio)
The notion of the accident in art deserves its own account in glitch aesthetic theory, where the result of an experiment or an accidental discovery can be appropriated in the work of art.
Sometimes its status is summarily defined as the happy accident and this notion spans across decades of artistic practice. Notable visual artists like Jackson Pollack are famously known for incorporating risk and chance in their work.
3.2.4. philosophy of Imperfection
On loop-finding-jazz-records, Jan Jelinek seems determined to show that mistakes can be beautiful, too - as formally pretty as if they weren't mistakes at all. If something vital still somehow eludes him, it is because he manages to fulfil his aims so successfully. Glitch's greatest promise - and one it only occasionally realises - lies in its capacity to achieve a wild humanity: a passionate intractability in the face of the demands of order, like a heart palpitating wildly under the constraints of reason. (Finney 2001)
4. Glitch at large
4.1. Formal Discussion
Perhaps a glitch conference would be a near perfect setting to discuss the range of thoughts concerning the glitch in a formal manner. One of the things I found was that artists working in glitch related fields perhaps perceive the glitch not as an end but as a means to an end, or as a way of enhancing their understanding of certain issues, Luciano Testi Paul mentions the glitch as a ‘concept that brings certain issues about perception to focus.’ Most of his Glitch-alikes are exploratory and poetic in nature.
Practice related
On the other hand they may relate their work to their individual practice, an artist like Tom Betts, might claim to be heavily interested in ‘process’. (DRU[30] 03 seminar) Tony Scott might want to elaborate on the fine art aspects of the glitch and developing an eye for an aesthetically pleasing glitch, while Lia + Miguel carvalhais regarded the glitch (which they refer to as errors) as a component of their commercial design process. Lia’s assumed mindset being pushing the technology to its breaking limits, to see what happens and then using those visual artefacts in designs for glitch musicians of the Mille Plateux family and force inc, who themselves work with the glitch.[31]
Glitch Symposium
In 2002, Oslo witnessed a unique glitch symposium[32], in their own words they were trying to bring together international artists, academics and other Glitch practitioners for a short space of time to share their work and ideas with the public and with each other. The proceedings of this
4.1.1. Art of the Accident
In 1998 a Dutch electronic arts festival (DEAF) produced a book called “the art of the accident” which not only catalogued the works presented at the festival, but also included essays and interviews by the Symposium participants and distinguished experts in the fields of architecture, music composition , science, and biology. [33]
4.2. Live – Staged – Recorded – Synthesised
4.2.1. Unique Status
Most glitch artists either dabble in both realms of audio and image based glitch-alikes, at one point or other
There are many live events that are themed around the retro aesthetics.
4.2.2. The Fetishists – The Nostalgics – The fringe
Much like hobbyists in any field, glitch art has a steadily growing following.
4.2.3. The Visual Glitch Artists **with pics
Glitch art is an involved process that stems from an
understanding of their tools, computer hardware, display adaptors, storage
media, etc.
- Gebhard Sengmuller deserves his own section in the annals of appreciating glitches. His work consists of an invention that revives the medium of Vinyl and resonates with early experiments of capturing moving imagery for broadcast on a physical medium Vinyl Video. I was fortunate enough to attend his exhibition at the FACT centre in Liverpool.
- Patrick O Brien, New York designer and director of TransFatty.com, known for his diverse style and remarkable approach to film making. His work can best be described as ‘visually arresting’ his Squarepushers' "Go! Spastic" video sums up some of the more dynamic abstract visuals and music inspired glitches.
- Benjamin Fischer of Typedown, is a very talented multimedia artist and designer who has been involved in the design and development of a number of successful international media projects. since he first eloquently explained the process behind his 'Neuordnung' work I realised that maybe a formal study should be done in this area.
- Tony Scott
Tony Scott. is Beflix! A name now synonymous with Glitch Art, he keeps a detailed daily log of visual glitches and performs his glitches at various events in the UK and abroad. He has crafted Glitch-alike visuals for a number of notable of glitch musicians such as Jen Jelinek and Kim Casone,
- Richard Fenwick
director of typographic films, renowned international graphic designer and filmmaker Richard Fenwick (currently at unified systems) uses the glitch in his work. Element of unknown invisible surveliance conveyed through glitches.
- Brian Kearns (cosmic Locksmith)
- ** write up
- Dimitre Lima, is a Brazilian artist and commercial designer. While dimitre confesses that he doesn’t know much about the glitch he touches on some very interesting issues when asked about the glitch. The interactive visuals he has produced collaborations at metaphsk are genuinely some of the finest examples of Glitch-alikes.
-
4.2.4. Glitch Music the Overpowering sound
Wherever the glitch has appeared, it is usually has an audio track. The dominance of glitch music and its accessibility as a medium of expression has somewhat overshadowed the development of glitch imagery.[34]
4.3. Visual Glitch and Science
4.3.1. Ben Fry
Benjamin Fry, a computer vision specialist at MIT, is now working in the field of genomic cartography, he mentions shifting the focus of genomic cartography on 'what has be expressed' through the visual representation of the data rather than for the sake of data visualisation.
In his own words “the idea is that most representations deal with making pictures of the data that exists. since it's ever-easier to collect data, people have become too consumed with the collection aspect and have forgotten what they were looking for along the way.” “in the case of genomic maps like the one in that paper, people are listing features just because they have the data, not because they're useful to understanding what the data actually *means*, or providing only a more useful subset of it.” When I enquired about visually depicting genetic abnormalities in the 2 percent or of DNA data that corresponds to genes. He replied that he has worked on a piece of software that is all about visually tracing anomalies.
Benjamin Fry asserts that his prototype is still very strictly data oriented. But maybe one day the visual glitch-alike can manifest itself in that particular field of science.
4.3.2. Quarks/Cryptology/Read Receipts: measuring changes content.
Quantum Cryptography, which makes eavesdropping on secure communications nearly impossible, is based on the principles of quantum physics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, states that it is impossible to measure something with perfect accuracy because the act of measurement alters the subject being measured. p 239 code book *put reference in endnote
Therefore, if a message that was sent using a quantum cryptographic method was to be read by an eavesdropping third party, it would immediately become apparent to the sender and recipient that someone is eavesdropping.
There is an interesting parallel here between the process of creating certain glitch-alikes and quantum cryptography. If you forced an image file to open in a standard non-image editing application such as Microsoft WordPad and then saved over the original image without changing anything by typing into the image, the image will become corrupted due to the way it is saved by a non-image editing application. The result is either visible as a visual glitch or the image become so corrupt that it cannot be opened in an image viewer.
4.3.3. Steganography
Steganography is a very creative area of communication, that strives to hide a message inside an innocuous piece of data in another medium. To demonstrate the versatility of the glitch-alike in a practical application, I came up with the idea of using video surveillance camera footage as the host medium and analogue video glitches (tracking errors, colour distortion and flicker) as the message signifier. ** pics of annotated surveillance cam footage
5. Future
5.1. Necessary appreciation
Part of the reason why we should
5.2. Age of the accident.
Accidents and the process of learning from them are a continuous part of human evolution. So called accidental aerial bombings, Thermonuclear disasters are all the types of glitches that we can do without.
5.3. The Future
Its hard to speculate on the future of such an evolving area.
5.3.1. The facts : diminishing trend of glitch in electronics
The glitch is constantly being eliminated in consumer electronics, and appreciated. Companies like Izotope are creating plugins for audio applications that mimic audio distortion, scratches and dust on Vinyl,.
Izotope Vinyl - One of iZotope Vinyl's many "lo-fi" controls is a unique "Warp" function that allows you to simulate the effect of a warped record.
And Bad TV was an effect by ** find badtv for video
But on the whole, the glitch is being eliminated faster on a much greater scale.
Those who speak about digital being a lifeless medium for film are completely missing the aliasing, video arefacts and low resolution that will in the near future be appreciated as they become superseded by a more pristine digital and higher resolution video medium.
5.3.2. Sensory experience
Art lies in the continual struggle to come near to the sensory side of objects. Francis Bacon. Statements, 1952-1955
[write about how the glitch relies so heavily on visual simulation,
Glitches in sensory experience.]
Randomness visual stimulation and
The coarseness or textural inconsistency of a fabric, that can be perhaps felt in life but not on an ecommerce website will undoubtedly be conveyed using output devices that try to mimic those very qualities.
5.3.3. Practical Related Fields – organic glitches
5.4. Concluding Remarks
5.5. The power to convey meaning
When talking about meaning in Pollock’s abstract expressionist works, Dr Francis V O’Connor commented[35] “meaning is the sum total of three things
1. what you feel on first encountering the work,
2. what you can see of the qualities of the work that made you feel as you did,
3. what you can know about the work's imagery and intent, and the historical origins and context from which, and in which, it was created.”
(O'Connor October 1998 and February 1999)
we can also argue that if a work stimulates the viewer into thinking any of those directions, therefore it must have promise of meaning.
** pics of Crown
According to Adorno Aesthetic questions always boil down
raises issue that setting is important,
[my views on meaning and how I have addressed it through my practical project mention http://www.usdat.us/tel-span/index.html The telematic chanel of the US department of Art and Technology]
reduced to a fragment an idea, because the streaming is not working.
Its subversive nature has been underutilised. Perhaps mention Jodi here?
5.6. more formal studies in this area
While I write these final sentences, and make corrections to the errors in my work, another student (Brian Gahona) has contacted me regarding his “concerning glitch aesthetics in visual art for my BFA thesis” he complains that he has had “a hard time finding any formal writings on the subject”
5.7. manifesto not required –
The runme.org software art repository was in the words of Alexei Shulgin, one of its founders, a response to prevent the monopolisation of Software Art. In this repository, there is a distinct category for glitch art. ** mention category.
Glitch art is simply glitch art, its particular aesthetics do not belong to one person or a collaborative effort. And it defies chategorisation. Defining its visual characteristics now would probably serve as a record to map its evolution or document an appreciation arising from a drive towards its extinction as other more interesting more powerful visualisation technologies are invented. (leading to extinction)
[refute the need for a manifesto, possibly relate to how the auto destructive movement wasn’t as popular as it could have been because of gustavs ideals]
the ideal’s of one person,
5.8. Conclusion
The versatility of the glitch as a means of inferring messages has been largely unappreciated and maybe it is best that it is left that way so that it remains unique and fresh for the instances it is used. In advertising we have seen how glitches are reclaimed by the very people who’s advertising campaigns could be boycotted by people like Adbusters who may glitch their images on purpose, This is purely a testament to its universal versatility and accessibility.
Despite what some individuals saturated in glitches but denying it will tell you, I believe visual glitch artists are the avante garde in the post digital aesthetic that Lev Manovich defines. The Glitch can either be seen as a ‘radically new way of using accumulated media’ (Manovich 2000) or its can just be the discarded artefact of communication appreciated by technology fetishists. No matter which way we look at it, it has the power to convey, meaning, boost sales or even alienate people.
According to foam (Fo.AM 2000) the glitch is an essential part of our world, not simply an adjunct to an aesthetic movement. As demonstrated, it can be used as part of the process of creativity through to scientific invention and innovation.
http://pollen.100luz.com.ar/
A glitch itself, when taken out of its original context and visualised for art's sake, becomes a powerful and dynamic demonstration of techno-fetishism at its finest, rather than undesirable corruption. It encourages a level of experimentation with digital art that goes beyond software specific use or misuse. On a deeper level it draws attention to the actual data that is being represented as a form of expression. (Moradi, 2003) **add reference to live art magazine
In terms of software originated glitches,
Ultimately I think those forms can become fetish objects in their own right.
there is little time to appreciate the fine nuances of digital media and even
less the artefacts of digital corruption, which are continually ironed out and
replaced with increased correctness and functionality. In such a framework
‘abandonware’, becomes fetishised.
Further inspiration, reading and browsing.
Tim Finney. Set the controls for the heart of the Sum.
4 December 2001 version – Tim finds Beauty in glitch techno music.
http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/setthecontrols.html
<nettime> Gustav Metzger:
Earth to Galaxies: On Destruction and Destructivity 18 Mar 1999
<nettime> Shulgin’s
account of how
18 Mar 1997
Simon Greenwold
What does it mean to be a medium?
Digital Fountain: http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/simong/fountain/index.html
Pointable computing: http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/simong/pointable/index.html
Benamin Fry
http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/fry/
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(reference artworks here)