Glitch as an art

The result of a technological malfunction, the visual glitch is generally an unwelcome visitor—a digital artifact representing error. But when viewed in their own right, seemingly randomized visual abstractions become fascinating designs that represent a unique hybrid of human intention and mechanical failure.

A glitch usually fixes itself in the amount of time it takes for it to be noticed in the first place, whether as a scrambled cable television delay, a page-loading error on an internet browser or a jumble of pixels on an ATM interface.

More discussions exist on the field of glitches in music composition than there ever have been. 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?’ - 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.

Recently released by Mark Batty Publishers, "Glitch: Designing Imperfection" examines these errors as works of art and explores their geneses. The editors culled more than 200 glitch images from the various artists who created them, both by accident and experiment.

"From a visual composition standpoint, glitches are incongruously linear, complex, sharp and occasionally blurred," says author Iman Moradi in the book's introduction.

"Together with the quality of being unexpected, they make the visual glitch an unashamedly amorphous entity that pleases or annoys."

the books website : link