More Glitch Art- Linda Chang

Since this is the end of quarter, I think it would be a good idea to add more websites for people who are interested in the glitch art for future reference:


http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/the-brain-numbing-beauty-of-gif-glitch-art

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/glitch-art

Glitch Codec Tutorial [glitch art demo] full tutorial

http://vimeo.com/23653867


I believe glitch art will remain its popularity, however it might take a while for the public to accept it as a form of high art. Glitch art definitely has the potential to become an significant art form in the 21 century.

(Edited) Nick Briz and Databending - Nancy Olivo

Of the many glitch artists contributing to glitch art theory, no one’s resume is as extensive as Nick Briz. Briz is an award-winning new media artist and a figurehead in the glitch art movement. He is the co-founder and organizer of the international GL.ITC/H conference that brought new media artists and theorists together. He is also a professor at the Institute of Chicago, teaching workshops and lectures on glitch art theory and practices. There is an aspect of Nick Briz’s work, which runs the gamut of open-source software to videos, that requires extensive knowledge and creative exploitation of a computer’s code.

Briz’s Glitch Codec provides the tools for databending and delves into a computer’s code to produce glitched visuals seen in his videos “Binary Quotes” and “A New Ecology for the Citizen of the Digital Age”. “Binary Quotes” and “New Ecology” (abv.) are experimental videoes made in a manner not too dissimilar to “The Wordpad Effect”. The binary code of the video was hacked into using hex editing software and then running the raw data through the default video program. [1] A hex editor is software that allows a user to access the binary of a file, since all digital file formats are a bunch of 0s and 1s. [2]  The finished product has a ‘datamosh’ aesthetic, where moving subjects bleed into the foreground. Briz’s viewpoint is that the “glitch” we see is the visual language that the computer sees, since the perceived mistake is on the part of the user, not the computer. These videos are made in some part by utilizing software he created that is now available for download called the “Glitch Codec”.

The “Glitch Codec” is open-source, which means that everyone can download it and modify the code to their purposes. The actual codec is color-coded for the users’ convenience. The header instructs users to modify the pink codes, allowing users the ease of replacing numbers and letters of a digital file without completely destroying it. [1] The Glitch Codec Tutorial he created allows newcomers to make glitch art in a user-friendly environment. The ease in which users of the Glitch Codec are able to produce glitched videos isn’t possible without Briz’s expertise of script-coding.

Briz’s work deals with the appropriation of existing digital mediums to create something new and the accompanying tutorial presents the tools needed to produce them. A magazine interview with Briz reveals his preference for the process of glitch making. 

“While the aesthetics are extremely important, playing multiple roles, they work in tandem with the technology and the (multiple) process[es].” [3]

A strong proponent for open-source software and accessibility, Briz believes that the user can create a relationship with the digital by tinkering with the data and take an active role in the public discussion of glitch art. Glitch art is a tool by which to learn and understand the digital. Rather than consuming new technology, Briz encourages viewers through his art to look at technology in a proactive light and create new and better things with it.

Nick Briz. "Binary Quotes". 2009

 Alternate Link

Nick Briz. "A New Ecology for the Citizen of A Digital Age".  2009

Check out his homepage for other projects!

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   1. “GLITCH CODEC TUTORIAL”, n.d., http://nickbriz.com/glitchcodectutorial/.

   2. "Hex editor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_editor (accessed October 22, 2012).

   3. Sam Rolfes, “INTERVIEW: Nick Briz  (w/Quick Glitch Tutorial!),” JOIN▾THE▾STUDIO, n.d., http://jointhestudio.com/2011/04/nick-briz-interview-glitch-tutorial/.

newly revised circuit bending blog post

Revised scholarly post #2

Bryan Stringfield

In my last post I talked about the basic implementation of circuit bending: how to do it and its accessibility to not only artists but tinkerers and DIY people in general.  This post will be more about the inner workings and the ideology behind this primitive yet effective process.  I will also talk about what the new age of electronics means for this art form.

The act of circuit bending as stated in my last post circuit bending is all about finding hidden elements inside a circuit board.  The process is very much like an excavation into the world of these electronics and trying to find an unexpected “fossil”. 

Because so many electronics are being used for this process, it is harder and harder for people to get a hold of the standard electronics that users began experimenting on back in the 60’s.  For this reason, people have been expanding and trying to find the limit as to what can be “bent”.  It is interesting however to find out why there are so many electronics that we can use in the first place. This was said by Bernard London in 1932: “I propose that when a person continues to possess and use old clothing, automobiles and buildings, after they have passed their obsolescence date, as determined at the time they were created,

He should be taxed for such continued use of what is legally “dead”.” (1)  This never stuck but the idea of new technology and getting rid of old or “obsolete” technology is what keeps the industry moving forward, but also is why there are so much trashed electronic goods.

I read an article about Reed Ghazala, a pioneer of circuit bending, that he himself wrote.  In the article he talked about his experiences in the art of bending both as a child and as an adult.  His work in the field of bending has truly paved the way for other benders.  Sitting in his basement, young Reed found himself tinkering at home with electronics at an early age. Ghazala wrote this about his classes in electronics at high school:”truth be told, at home in my basement lab I was learning more about electronics, music and synthesis than my high school could offer at any grade level.  I learned endless valuable lessons as this first instrument was built and rebuilt over those early years.”(2)

   Although Ghazala has been famed for his circuit bending, did we really not learn about this until the late 20^th century? Many people suggest that we have been using circuit bending since the early 1920’s.  An instrument called the Theremin was built in the 1920”s in Russia.  This machine was used to alter radio frequencies to make sounds that resembled old sci-fi movies.  This machine was built by Leon Theremin.  Using what we know about circuit bending, we can say that this was some of the earliest forms of bending on record.  The only problem is that the standard definition of circuit bending includes hacking an electronic device and essentially destroying it as you work around all the circuits.  Leons machine was built to make these sounds which is why many, including Ghazala refused to acknowledge Leons work.   (3)

As we move into more technologically advanced computers and machines, it is becoming more difficult to hack simply because everything is more complex.  But on the other hand, the technology race that is happening all over the world is giving hackers a surplus of technology to play around with and manipulate.  This could mean a new era in the world of not only circuit bending but glitch art and new media art as a whole.

1. Hertz, Garnet1, and Jussi2 Parikka. “Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method.” Leonardo 45, no. 5 (October 2012): 425–430.

2. Ghazala, Qubais Reed. “The Folk Music of Chance Electronics: Circuit-Bending the Modern Coconut.” Leonardo Music Journal 14 (January 1, 2004): 97–104.

3. Morton, Jeff. “A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE on CIRCUIT-BENDING.” BlackFlash Magazine 29, no. 2 (March 2012): 36–42.

Bryan Stringfield

Google Maps Glitch

A series of glitched images Google Maps generated, created by stAllio!, jon Rafman and others and collected by Rosa Menkman on her home site.
We see these images appear numerous times on Google Maps, yet few of us see a beauty to them.
Thought it was worth posting, as these demonstrates that even as technology advances to provide visual information about our destination, it remains imperfect.

Just saw this while watching the Colbert Report online today!

Clearly the code of this data being streamed to my computer has been corrupted somehow.

The sound worked perfectly though, which is interesting.  Glitch art is everywhere!

- Chris Boyle      

videos about circuit bending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovh-yCAJUYs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Pbyg_kcEk

circuit bending #2

revised scholarly post #2

Media archeology is a branch of media theory focused on old and unused media devices (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 425). It has been known for exploring forgotten or obsolete media technologies in order to comprehend the new technologies and technological trends in ways that are original and new. Circuit bending, or the exploring and rewiring of discarded consumer electronics outside of their original purpose, is a key portion in contemporary art trends (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 426). The exploration and manipulation of the circuits in discarded, older technology found in circuit bending ultimately shares many of the same philosophical ideas of media archeology.

The process of circuit bending heavily relies on recycling and reusing obsolete electronics, often found at a second-hand store or garage sale (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 427). The artist who manipulates the circuits within the  consumer electronics often “traverses through the hidden content” within the electronic device for “the joy of entering its concealed underlayer,” often breaking existing circuits without a clear endpoint in mind (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 426). The result of circuit bending is a creative rewiring of electronics primarily for the purpose of generating something new, whether that is a unique sound or visual output. Reed Ghazala’s Incantor series, highly customized children’s toys that emit sounds of stutters, loops, and screams, is useful as a tool to highlight the use of obsolete technology (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 426)  His work with the previously discarded toys relates directly to media archeology in that it uses older technology to present ideas to be contemplated in correlation with newer technology trends.

One theory behind circuit bending is that the resultant art acts as a way of exploring the inner workings of devices that have been discarded for the next, better item of technology. The very methodology of circuit bending itself “recall[s ] historical practices of reuse and serve[s] as a useful counterpoint” to new and shiny digital technologies (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 427). At its most basic, circuit bending takes the old and creates something new, unique, and unexpected. This embraces media archeology further as a form of art, one that not only addresses the past but further articulates questions concerning living but dead media.

            The philosophy behind media archeology and circuit bending overlaps often. Media archeology has previously been successful as a “methodology of lost ideas, unusual machines, and re-emerging desires and discourses documents” (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 427). It is focused more on the real technological conditions of expressions than on the content of the media. Circuit bending also explores what alterations can be done to technological exponents in order to produce something novel. Furthermore, both media archeology and circuit bending use concrete devices that allow for the understanding of the nature of time and its fleeting nature in contemporary electronic culture through the manipulation of irrelevant pieces of technology (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 427). This overlap of both methodology and philosophy allows circuit bending to be used as a means to fully understand media archeology, and vice versa.

It is important to note that there is a great challenge the work of circuit bending. It “takes as its object a concrete opening of technologies” (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 427). The inner workings and components of consumer devices are increasingly more hidden as the devices become more complex, and both circuit bending and media archeology must face this problem. It may become increasingly difficult to explore, rewire, and manipulate the circuits in newer technological items.

Consumer technologies have moved into a phase in which most of the older models have been replaced. Many items are considered “obsolete and in an 'archaeological phase'” (Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media.” 429). The art that results from circuit bending can be studied as an exploration of the history of technology. The rebirth of older consumer items as circuit bending art pieces will surely continue as technology sheds older pieces and turns over new ones at such an fast pace.

   

Hertz, Garnet1, and Jussi2 Parikka. “Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method.” Leonardo 45, no. 5 (October 2012): 425–430.

Hertz and Parikka, “Zombie Media."

Bryan Stringfield

B