Thursday, November 15, 2012

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.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

(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




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



-------------------------
   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!),” JOINTHESTUDIO, n.d., http://jointhestudio.com/2011/04/nick-briz-interview-glitch-tutorial/.





Sunday, November 11, 2012

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 20th 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


Saturday, November 10, 2012

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.

Thursday, November 8, 2012


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      

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

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

Self-Portrait-Linda Chang

This a a sequence of my own picture through data bending. I used the repeated the process and compare with the result with what I started, which is almost unidentifiable. The process of making it is really interesting experience, cracking down to the code of an image and seeing the image of oneself being destroyed. I consider this as ho computer view its user, and all of us are the same to the machine.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

glitched self portraits



these are pictures that i glitched using the wordpad effect



bryan stringfield



My self portrait.  I took the picture with a flatbed scanner and ran the image through Audacity several times to create the .GIF sequence.

-Andrew



Monday, November 5, 2012

Glitched Self-Portrait -Nancy Olivo


A picture of myself on a bright sunny day in New York. I used Audacity's "Echo" effect to glitch the images in sequential order and made it to a gif file.

Self Portraits - Chris Boyle

Here are some experiments with messing with the binary code behind images.




--Chris Boyle--

How is Glitch Art Defined as Art?




Glitch art is trying to forge its own name in the art world.  As a new media often are, glitch art faces criticism from it being a fully digital work of art and using a unique and conceptual medium. It is formed from a combination of random chance and planned intent through manipulated the binary code behind the image.  So what is the controversy between planned and pure forms of Glitch art and does that make a difference in distinguishing it as a true art form? 
IDN Magazine describes in its issue entitled “Glitch Art,” that glitches can be described as slip-ups in the computer coding behind an image and that when exploited by artists, these slip-ups are often seen as “happy accidents.”1   In the article Benjamin Gaulon states that there are two forms of glitch art.  Circuit-bending is the more analog form where the results of the physical data transfer are interrupted from electrical charges or loaded circuits.2   The other form is to manipulate the binary code by hand.  Both leave a lot up to chance as the artists has no exact idea how the image will turn out. 
This reminds one a lot of specific art movements in the past, such as automatic surrealism.  Automatism was the use of chance in paintings and writings to create a unique surrealist piece that came from one’s subconscious.  Glitch art could be considered the use of chance in digital technology to create a unique abstract piece that comes from that image’s basic technological structure.  Iman Moradi doesn’t really see a huge distinction between the coincidental and planned forms of glitches.  One could even argue that the planned forms offer better visual aesthetics than its counterpart.  Moradi says the key is to focus on the glitch itself.3
This is only one of several reasons glitch art should be appreciated on the same scale as more traditional art forms.  Moradi goes on to list how glitches represent human traits in technology.  When you give a machine the ability to err, technology becomes less threatening to society.4   It exposes the inner working and presents the technology as more vulnerable than we realize.
Tony Scott believes in this idea as well and goes on to elaborate how all digital art should be treated equally to more traditional mediums.  He states that the reason people don’t value digital art as highly is because of the lack of humanity in technology.5   You can’t count how many hours a digitally-manipulated image took, and everyone knows that even the most fantastic of digital pieces could only take a matter of minutes.  The worth of physical paintings are usually derived from both their long realization times, the visible humanity in the brushstrokes, and that if the painting is destroyed, it will be lost forever.6   When artists begin to exploit the glitches in a digital image, we are reminded of all those analog traits in the image.  Glitch art is helping to shine a new view on technology and peak into the humanistic elements of fully digitized pieces.  It’s a comfort reminder of our nostalgic past and how tolerant we were of imperfection.  Glitch art can cause an emotional realization in the viewer of these feelings and comment on how society and technology interact today. 

1  “Glitch – The Art of the Unexpected.” IDN, Volume 18, Number 3. http://idnworld.com/mags/?id=v18n3. 36-37.
2.     Ibid.
3.     Iman Moradi. “Seeking Perfect Imperfection. A personal retrospective on Glitch Art,” (University of Huddersfield, England, 2008). accessed Nov 4, 2012. http://virose.pt/vector/x_06/moradi.html.
4.     Ibid.
5.     Tony Scott. “Glitch on Paper,” accessed November 4, 2012. http://www.beflix.com/gop.html.
6.     Ibid.


----Chris Boyle

Does Faking Glitch Art Still Count?


Glitch art is often the product of accident or experimentation in file corruption and data loss.  Because of this popular aesthetic theme’s connection with the digital age and technology, many designers feel they can manipulate or cause the work to appear fake through plug-ins and other methods, but is this staying true to the integrity of the work? Does glitch art need to remain pure through file corruption to be considered true glitch art?
            The answer to that apparently depends on the artist’s intent behind the work.   Jonas Downey mentions how the aesthetic of glitch art is mainly derived from its concept.  Visually it could be compared to many of the modernist abstract painters from the schools of De Stijl and some Bauhaus design elements, but conceptually it represents the hidden code behind digital technology.1 In the digital age, we don’t normally appreciate all the computer coding and language behind a digital image or sound.  If you manipulate what is written in the code, you can access the glitches inside a file and exploit those glitches to either make something visually interesting, or speak to the how imperfect society’s perfect technology is.  We tend to forget that a digitally manipulated image could be just as impressive as an analog, hand-painted work of art.  That’s why Downey says keeping true to the data’s integrity is more important than the aesthetic treatments.2
Tony Scott states that the value of art is in its inherent imperfections.  It is when we can relate to it as imperfect humans that glitch art can begin to affect us on an emotion level.Scott also states that because the whole practice of glitch art is about exploiting and showing these imperfections, that faking it through plug-ins doesn’t lend itself to interesting work or results.  Plug-ins tend to produce predictable results.  When you manipulate the code by hand or from some happy-accident encounter an error in the script, you are making a more direct connection with the medium behind the message than trying to fake as design to look aesthetically pleasing.
But glitch art is becoming increasing more and more fashionable, says Rosa Menkman, and this will lead to a more commercialized approach for the genre as a whole.4   What is important to practitioners of glitch art, he states, is to focus on these imperfections and to continue to experiment and look for new ways to exploit the code and data.  When this new medium begins to get popularized, it is the responsibility of the artists to fight against faking the look, because keeping true to the integrity of the concept speaks more to the artistic community than the visual properties of a work.
This new fashionable approach has already arrived in the last few years.  IDN World as a magazine company did an entire issue with the glitch art aesthetic.   Visually you can see where some fake glitches on the page are purely design flourishes upon the copy, but the pictures of actual work done by the artists tend to attract the eye in more.5   I was quite impressed by how the artists can still communicate their concepts of the hidden code behind a picture and they all stated that faking the glitches wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it just wouldn’t create a unique piece of art as valuable as say, the Mona Lisa.6   So the intent behind what you’re trying to convey in glitch art, is really the deciding factor in keeping to the true glitch art form.

1. Jonas Downey. “Glitch Art,” University of Illinois, accessed November 4, 2012, http://jonasdowney.com/workspace/uploads/writing/glitch-art-jonasdowney.pdf. 11.
2. Ibid.
3. Tony Scott. “Glitch on Paper,” accessed November 4, 2012. http://www.beflix.com/gop.html.
4. Rosa Menkman, The Glitch Moment(um). (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011), 11. http://networkcultures.org/_uploads/NN%234_RosaMenkman.pdf
5.  “Glitch – The Art of the Unexpected.” IDN, Volume 18, Number 3. http://idnworld.com/mags/?id=v18n3. 36-39.
6.  Scott, ibid.




---Chris Boyle

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Interpretation and Meaning



                In my last scholarly post I focused on the origins and classification of glitch art, but here I want to expand more on the involved technical process.  The methods used to create glitch art can be categorized into three main headings; incorrect editing, reinterpretation and forced errors. [1]   The simplest and most user friendly method is incorrect editing.  Incorrect editing is as simple as opening an uncompressed image in a text-editor, changing a few characters here and there and saving it back out.  By doing this you are altering the definition of the image which yields unexpected results.  The complex code that makes up the image can be seen as a set of instructions telling the computer how to produce the image on your screen, and by altering this you are simply feeding the computer a new set of instructions. 

                Reinterpretation takes a file out of its original context and repurposes the data.  Have you ever thought about what an image sounds like or what your term paper would look like as an image?   This is the essence of reinterpretation, taking the data from  one purpose, an image, and say opening it as an mp3 instead.  The data itself is not altered but the result is unintentional and unpredictable.
                The final method of producing glitch art, forced errors, is the most complicated and unpredictable of the three methods.  Forcing errors upon files is often executed by exploiting known bugs within programs in hopes of corrupting the file.[1]  Like mentioned, this method is hard to control and is never entirely dependable. 

                In 2010 a five-day conference took place in Chicago appropriately titled GLI.TC/H.  The conference had many speakers, videos and presentation all focusing on glitch art.  Speaker Curt Cloniger stated "As texts make their way to us through digital intermediaries, these intermediaries in part determine their affect, which in part determines their meaning."[2]  Cloniger is arguing that data has no definite meaning as zeros and ones stored as binary data in a computer.  The data is given meaning by our technological devices that act as a decoder to decipher the cryptic language into a meaningful representation. 
   
                The debate that glitch art must be unintentional still remains open.  There are so many gray areas in creating glitch art that I don't see there ever being a conclusive answer.  When looking at the three methods; incorrect editing, reinterpretation and forced errors, each one has a level of controllability and erratic behavior.  If the purpose of glitch art is purely aesthetics then unintentional bugs may not be enough to fulfill that role.  Without some level of artistic control it is hard for the data to be interpreted with a different meaning outside of its sole intended purpose, whatever that may be. 


1.   Brizq, Nick. GLI.TC/H READER[ROR] 20111. Unsorted Books, 2011.                  http://gli.tc/h/READERROR/GLITCH_READERROR_20111-v3BWs.pdf (accessed November 4,       2012).

2.   Geere, Duncan. Wired, "Glitch art created by 'databending'." Last modified 2010. Accessed   November 4,     2012. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/17/glitch-art-  databending.

-Andrew Foresman