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/.

EDITED November 13th, 2012 1:55PM