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The Predicaments Of Defining Glitch Art Artists often find themselves on a frontline, reflecting on the cultures, politics and technologies of their time. Over the last decades, audiovisual media and computers have gradually gained more and more importance in an art field that is still fundamentally ruled by classical media forms and genres. Noise itself is of course not new; similarly, contemporary glitch art relates to a long history of noise art and artists battling in different ways against media forms and their flows and conventions, including especially what I have outlined as the convention of transparent immediacy. While not being new, noise art arises unpredictably in new forms across different technologies and cultural scenes. Over time, noise artists have migrated from exploring the grain, the scratching and burning of celluloid (for example, a colour box by Len Lye, 1937) to the magnetic distortion and scanning lines of the cathode ray tube (a significant work being Nam June Paik in magnetTV in 1965). Subsequently, glitch artists wandered the planes of phosphor burn-in, as Cory Arcangel did in panasonic TH-42PWD8UK plasma screen burn, in 2007. With the arrival of LCD (liquid crystal display) technologies, dead pixels were rubbed, bugs were trapped between liquid crystals or plastic displays and violent screen cracking LCD performances took place (of which my favorite is %SCR2, by Jodi, under the Pseudonym webcrash2800 in 2009). To some artists, myself included, it has become a personal matter to break the assured informatic flows of media. While normally, transparent media screens generate conventional impressions of immediacy, there is a desire to force the viewer to think beyond his comfort zones. Glitch artists make use of the accident to ‘disfigure’ flow, image and information, or they exploit the void – a lack of information that creates space for deciphering or interpreting the process of creating (new kinds of) meaning. Through these tactics, glitch artists reveal the machine’s techné and enable critical sensory experience to take place around materials, ideologies and (aesthetic) structures. Their destructive or disfiguring processes have no technological name, definition or explanation (yet). For this reason, it is necessary to not only define and categorize glitch at technological levels, but also to look closely at how specific media are exploited on a more complex techno-cultural level. The artists I discuss here include Ant Scott, 5VOLTCORE Gijs Gieskes and Jodi. Of course many other artists whose practices are invested in the moment(um) or culture of glitch could have been included here. An actual historiography would for instance also include signal processing artists like Karl Klomp, Lovid, Morgan Higby-Flowers and Max Capacity, aesthetic glitch-tricksters like Jon Satrom, jonCates, fabric artist Melissa Baron, and databend generative artists such as stAllio!, glitch-irion Pixelnoizz and Hellocatfood. This historiography is still unwritten (partly because it is still in progress). As is clear by now, the inherent openness of glitch as a concept makes glitch art difficult, if not impossible, to define. Although a glitch can take place strictly within the computational system, the majority of artifacts that are called or referred to as glitches within glitch art are not purely informational, but make sense only through a synthesis of agents and contexts involved. Glitch is post-procedural (a break from a procedural flow) and so, dialectically connects to, while departing from, a linear and informational model of media communication (‘information source-> encoder-> channel-> decoder-> destination’), while also incorporating contextual and social processes of interpretation and making meaning. Furthermore, it is necessary to recall that the word ‘glitch’ in ‘glitch art’ is often used as a metaphorical concept, even by glitch artists, and therefore varies from the standalone technical or informational term ‘glitch’. Ant Scott. SUQQE. Digital screenshot. 2002. The complexities that must be faced by a theorist or researcher when trying to define or demarcate some kind of ‘essence of glitch art’ (if this is even possible) come to the foreground upon close engagement with Ant Scott’s (Beflix) work. For years, Ant Scott has been a leading figure in the realm of glitch art. From 2001 until 2005 he published hundreds of glitch images – static and animated – on his blog, appearing here as the first glitch artist actually using the term ‘glitch art’ for his work. These images don’t have a common source; further, some of them are ‘found’ glitch artifacts turned into or framed as art, while others are intentionally made from scratch by the artist. Ant Scott describes his series glitch (2007), a collection of 25 ‘works’ (small digital renders of lo-fi captured glitches) accessible via his home page, as the best of his ‘pure glitch’ phase. The images, which at first might appear bewildering, are actually created from computer crashes, software errors, hacked games, and megabytes of raw data turned into colored pixels.02 They originate or are con- 02 | Ant Scott, GLITCH #12, GLITCH ART, 2007, http://www.Ant Scott.com/works/glitch.php id=12. structed from thorough trial and error processes,to which Scott carefully reassigns colours, and crops select areas of interest. The result is the works that make up the glitch series. Ant Scott’s working process presents all kinds of dilemmas in the quest for a definition and categorisation of glitch art. What kind of ‘glitch’ is this ‘glitch art’ exploring? How can the glitch be explained as an unexpected, abnormal mode of operation, when the artist’s working process and what he aims for are these abnormalities to begin with? Can the intended error be really described as erroneous? On the other hand, Scott’s wide-ranging interrogation of glitch aligns with other aspects of glitch that I have outlined. A glitch can indeed exist within and across different systems, for instance the system of production and the system of reception. Similarly, a glitch can depend on different actors within these systems; not just the technological elements that Shannon described, but also the ideological and cultural contexts of the technology, which brings aspects of time, place and structure (aesthetics) into the art work, all of which differ between different publics, involved in the process of making meaning. Despite glitch art having no solid, or single definition through time and place, just as Virilio argued that it is helpful to describe a difference between non-figurative and disfigured art, I believe it is useful to make a similar distinction between different dimensions of ‘glitch’ in ‘glitch art’. Glitch art then potentially incorporates a range of works that are post-procedural, deconstructive, accidental and so on, alongside works more focussed on a final end-product, aesthetic or design.

THE GLITCH MOMENT(UM) By Rose Menkman (2011) (Pg 33-35)

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Very interesting read on the ‘Glitch’ period within art and the technicalities of the way of working. Going through; definitions of ‘Glitch Art’, Methodology, Networking and ‘tips-of-the-trade’ to creating Glitch Art. 

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#comedy

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Oliver Laric - ‘Versions (Missile Variations)’ (2010)

“Oliver Laric’s multimedia work engages with themes of pop culture, mass media, the relationship between past and present, and globalization. He re-imagines classic Greek and Roman sculpture, producing massive polyurethane and 3-D-printed casts. His ongoing video project “Versions” explores historical and contemporary image hierarchies through a series of documented monologues. Laric’s earlier work was primarily video-based and involved the manipulation of existing broadcast media such as YouTube, as in 50 50, a video compilation of karaoke singers covering a song by the hip-hop artist 50 Cent.” - https://www.artsy.net/artwork/oliver-laric-versions-missile-variations

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer - ‘1984x1984′ (2015)

“‘1984x1984′ is the tenth piece in Lozano-Hemmer’s Shadow Box series of interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. The piece shows a grid of thousands of random numbers extracted from addresses photographed by Google Street View. Scanned by Google from the front doors of buildings around the world, the numbers have an immense variety of fonts, colours, textures, and styles. As a viewer walks in front of the piece, his or her silhouette is represented within the display, and within its form, all numbers countdown to show the number 1984 repeated throughout. The piece was made as a homage to George Orwell’s eponymous dystopian novel, 30 years after his predicted date for the collapse of privacy. The piece exists as a reactive flat screen which can be shown unframed or integrated into an anodized aluminium enclosure. Also, there as an edition of 6 C-prints in Kodak Endura paper and a “treatment” version which can be projected or shown on a display larger than 6 x 3 m.” - http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/1984x1984.php

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer - ‘Pulse Index’ (1992)

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican Artist who was most noticeably in Tate’s ‘Electronic Superhighway’ exhibition. 

“‘Pulse Index’ is an interactive installation that records participants’ fingerprints at the same time as it detects their heart rates. The piece displays data for the last 765 and over participants in a stepped display that creates a horizon line of skin. To participate, people introduce their finger into a custom-made sensor equipped with a 220x digital microscope and a heart rate sensor; their fingerprint immediately appears on the largest cell of the display, pulsating to their heart beat. As more people try the piece one’s own recording travels upwards until it disappears altogether —a kind of memento mori using fingerprints, the most commonly used biometric image for identification. The project exists in a small plasma version which features a 58 inch HD screen hung in portrait mode and in a large projection version which can be as large as desired.” - http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/pulse_index.php

I really enjoy the photographs from this exhibition. I find the viewers participation within this exhibition very intriguing to view just as solo pieces of work. The viewers curiosity to their own finger prints and ultimately, their own identity, shows us that even though we may know ourselves, we can still be surprised and interested to find out things about ourselves. 

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Bruce Conner - ‘Bombhead’ (2002)

Conner is someone who got recommended to me by a friend. He is known for provocative film, drawing and sculptural works - however, one work that really stood out for me is ‘Bombhead’ (2002). This one image I believe has relevance to today’s powerful leaders. Leaders and dictators becoming trigger happy with their threats. I remember ‘The Interview’, a comedy movie with Seth Rogen and James Franco about the assassination of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. North Korea began threatening the US that if the movie were to ever get released, they would respond with a ‘Merciless’ reaction. The movie was then postponed from a cinema release, yet became available online after the storm had settle between these two powers. The world on that day was literally on the brink of WWIII over a comedy that had no intention of becoming that provocative towards North Korea. ‘Bombhead’ to me, is a reminder to how unstable and absurd the world is towards the view of power and greed. 

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Glitch Artists Collective

A facebook collective of Artists from around the world who can share, comment and discuss ‘Glitch Art’. This collective has really helped me develop my own practice of glitching. Artists such as James Usill use this frequently to post his art.

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Jacolby Satterwhite

“I use video, performance, 3D animation, fibers, drawing and printmaking to explore themes of memory, desire, personal and public mythology. My recent body work "The Matriarch's Rhapsody" utilizes my mother’s drawings and music recordings as a primary resource. My has drawn thousands of schematic drawings/inventions influenced by consumer culture, medicine, fashion, surrealism, math, sex, astrology, philosophy, and matrilineal concerns. The drawings are mostly of common objects and luxury products found in the domestic sphere. The Matriarch's Rhapsody's title stems from the action of repurposing everyday objects drawn by my mother, and queering their meaning in a performative animated narrative. My practice has it's roots in dada, surrealist, and fluxus attitudes. I pair down multiple drawings and create a time based narrative out of a nonsensical intersection of the text, rendered objects and dance performance. I am interested in process as a meta narrative; the narrative between a mother & and son's studio practices, the narrative between past, present, and future, and the narrative between mediums. My body and art facility, as an extension/interpretation of my mother’s voice and drawings, is an attempt to examine memory, insider/ outsider art practices, contemporary surrealist practices, queer phenomenology and push the tensions created during translation and inheritance of studio practice.” - http://jacolby.com/home.html

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Sarah Lancaster Feedback on my ‘Orange is the new Black man’ Edit

I posted on Facebook my most recent edits and I wanted to have some feedback from them through the use of social media. I wanted people to tell me exactly how they felt watching these videos for the first time. Sarah Lancaster got back to me with an article that really got me thinking. Dana Schutz is someone who has had recent controversy over her painting of Emmett Till, a 14 year old black boy who was brutally murdered in the 1950′s. I believe what Sarah Lancaster wanted me to think about, is that I may not have the right to express a certain event as I may have no connection to the event. Dana Schutz got a lot of backlash as viewers of the painting felt that she had no right expressing that poor boy’s murder. Schutz replies:

“I don’t know what it is like to be black in America, but I do know what it is like to be a mother. Emmett was Mamie Till’s only son.” - http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/35219/1/black-artists-protest-emmett-till-painting-by-white-artist

I believe I can empathise with Schutz. Emmett Till’s Mother had an open casket funeral as she wanted people to see what the murderer did to her son. I believe the painting that Dana Schutz did, only emphasises the wishes of Emmett Till’s Mother, and point out how this disaster can happen. Schutz feels empathy towards a Mother, and I feel empathy towards the events I arise within my work. I don’t wish to bring out arguments within the public with my work. I just wish for people to look again towards these factors that happen in life, how life can be so harsh and so beautiful at the same time. I hope the realism of my thinking shines through my work.

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Keiitchi Matsuda - ‘Hyper-Reality’ (2016)

Matsuda creates an integrated world with both reality and virtual reality both becoming more objective and attainable. Both of these realities working simultaneously with one another. I really enjoyed where the virtual technology fails and the physical reality begins to sink into the character. It’s sad to see how much more vibrant and fun the world looks with the help of this virtual reality. This film explores the integration of virtual reality to an exaggerated level - Imagining what the world would be like in maybe just a few decades time, maybe even less time than that. I can already see similarities within my everyday life to this film.  Very clever little advertisements and app suggestions throughout the video that can help you ‘gain points’ and ‘become slim fast’ which is very similar to how adverts pop up when browsing through today’s vast internet library of knowledge. 

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Trevor Paglen - ‘Trinity Cube’ (2015)

All this time within my own work, I have using the internet to be able to access and reach more audience than I ever could within a typical ‘white cube’ space, where as Trevor Paglen and a few others have used a disaster zone to host their work. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster happened in 2011, killing and injuring hundreds, and driving thousands out of their homes due to radioactivity within the area. One of the worst nuclear disasters since Chernobyl. Trevor Paglen and others, travelled to this area that has no access to create and host a series of works that ultimately, may never be seen with the naked eye ever. I really enjoy how these works stand alone within a disaster area. In terms of accessibility, Paglen’s work is the exact opposite. However I really like these factors of the work. The world is now more connected than ever before, yet Paglen has made a piece of work which to this day is not accessable.

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Thomas Ruff - ‘Substrat 34 1′ (2007/16)

Thomas Ruff takes an image to the limits with his manipulation. ‘Subtrat 34|1′ is a blur of colour and morphing forms to create a trippy and I feel very soothing piece to experience. 

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Shinji Toya

Shinji Toya was suggested to me by Louise Webb after she noticed how similar our works are. I too have noticed how similar our work real are. One collection of work I really find these similarities is in the ‘Automatic Abstract Painter’, where Toya creates these abstract paintings using digital glitching and manipulating techniques. I find these oddly similar to my screenshot images of my datamoshed videos. How the pixels and colour tend to morph into something otherworldly.