#design context

Glitch Art is a movement which encompasses a wide variety of techniques; and an even wider variety of possible methods to achieve these techniques. I believe a part of it's appeal is it's inherent modernism – it's reliance on new technologies which eschew tradition and the relative “norm” established by modern art. In fact, it is because of this loosely accepted ethos that I believe glitch art to be a natural evolution of pop art and the post-modern movements – as it shares a firm sense of “intentional otherness” and a desire to break away from, and question, society's definition of art.

Moving on from the examples of his work featured in my previous post, I've decided to focus on another series of images by Sabato Visconti, which he has titled “Apocalypse Beach”. Tying in with the themes of contrast which often feature in glitch art works, these images were created with the intent of creating a juxtaposition between instability and intimacy – in the artist's own words “where the indifference of individual experience meets the indifference of an environment poised to swallow us whole.”

The following images were all created through a technique called “Datamoshing” - a common application in glitch art which involves the manipulation of compressed video formats, and the way in which the frames are encoded. By removing the “i-frames” ((also known as keyframes) which contain information about each frame's pixel data) and leaving behind the remaining “p-frames” (which only contain information on the pixels which move within each frame) the resulting imagery grants the viewer a unique perspective with which to view the relatively mundane subject matter – transforming it into an entirely different experience.

Design Context: Module 3

“Photo Narrative”

“Campbell's Soup Cans” (occasionally referred to as “32 Campbell's Soup Cans”) is a work of art by Andy Warhol, produced in 1962. It comprises 32 individual canvases, produced via screen printing – a “non-painterly” method – with each canvas representing a different variety of soup offered by the Campell's Soup company at the time. Campbell's Soup Cans' appropriation of popular culture helped to usher in pop art as a major art movement in the United States.

One of 32 separate canvases comprising the piece “Campbell’s Soup Cans”

As a result of the semi-mechanized process used, the simplistic style, and the commercial subject matter , the pieces initially drew a lot of ire from the art community, as the work's blatantly mundane commercialism represented a direct affront to the technique and philosophy of abstract expressionism – which was the dominant art movement during the post-war period. The controversy caused by this led to a great deal of debate about the merits and ethics of such work, with the discussion continuing to present day.

Example of the colour variations Warhol was able to utilize thanks to the screen-printing method.

Warhol made use of the the Campbell's Soup Cans in his work on numerous other occasions later in his career, and his use of images from the world of commerce and mass media continued throughout his career. There are numerous anecdotes claiming to reveal the reasons behind his decision to utilize the cans in the first place. One explanation “blames” Roy Lichtenstein, as Warhol's respect  for his work forced him to eschew comic books as a subject – with Muriel Latow (an aspiring interior decorator) being pointed to as the one who suggested the soup cans as a replacement.

Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot), 1962

Technically speaking, a glitch is a fault – often transient in nature. The result of a temporary malfunction, glitches have become a common source of frustration for consumers of digital media in the modern age – with the resulting visual effects being instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up in the last few decades. Unlike bugs, a more tangible source of error that can usually be diagnosed and repaired, the causes of a glitch are often unknown – creating a vague sense of mystery around them, in addition to the amusement often caused by their iconic visual effects.

In recent years, as computer literacy has become more commonplace and specialist software has granted even the most ignorant of leypeople a certain degree of control over the inner workings of digital media, glitches have begun to creep into the world of digital art in an intentional way. Indeed, flaws which once may have condemned an image as ruined by some are now highly sought by others – those working with the relatively novel medium of “Glitch Art”, which amongst other things is used by artists to demonstrate the fragility and imperfection of modern technology.

One such artist is Sabato Visconti, a Brazilian multimedia artist who has embraced the genre through it's many different applications – and utilizes glitches in photography, illustrations and various other forms of new media. The most intriguing of these applications, in my personal opinion, is his experimentation with “animated glitch art GIFs”, short animated loops which capture the essence of glitch art, with a decidedly post-modern twist, by utilizing the process of ROM hacking to create visual experiences which corrupt images of popular culture into undeniably unique forms.

b_00iii, Sabato Visconti, 2014-15

[%%% Nite Checkout], Sabato Visconti, 2014-15