Noah Eisenbruch GLITCH ART

September 2011

A glitch is when a process breaks and creates an unexpected result. Systems can be learned and glitches can be controlled. Glitch art is when glitches are exploited and manipulated for a desired creative effect. Glitch is interesting because it reveals the unexpected in systems that we expect to work in specified, predictable ways. People may question glitch art: Why would you glitch that? We glitch because we can. Because breaking things only means you have the opportunity to create something new. Although it may seem a limited field, a glitch process can actually be applied to any system that can be controlled and/or manipulated. Glitch art, in its most common recent context, is software and hardware based. Even though glitch art is limiting, I am still interested because every glitch stands on its own as an object, as well as being able to serve as an effect on a separate source. This causes both the glitch and the separate source to be reinvented or re-contextualized. Datamoshing is a very simple idea and process, but when applied to planned footage, it can become a particular statement of the artist's desire. Loops are also intriguing to me and seem inherently connected to glitch art. The idea of creating a loop is just a manual glitch. If glitch art is about exploiting these glitches then a loop is as exploitative a glitch as one can achieve. Since each datamosh, for example, can have its own contextualization, there can be no better way to exploit that then by looping it, and forcing the viewer to experience it fully. The repetition of a loop will often make the beginning, middle and end of a piece unidentifiable or even disappear. In my opinion, this is when a glitch/video piece may begin to cross over into the realm of objects in space and sculpture. It is at this point that a piece will develop a personality and presence in space. A major accomplishment as a glitch artist is to develop your own skills and abilities to glitch, such as creating a specific method that you have not seen before. Often times this new glitch will have a completely unique appearance, although not always. There are many ways to break a code and arrive at a similar place. It would be a great goal to be able to coin a process as the 'Noah Glitch' by the end of my Division III. The style of many pieces of glitch art can be emulated outside of actual glitches, since they are mere numbers in sequence creating patterns out of pixels and color. Many pieces of glitch art share a similar, colorful, lo-fi rectangle based style that we can all identify as a common 'web art' style. Another option of emulation can be that of process. Once one has established a sense of control in a process/medium, one can figure out how to glitch the process itself, and then exploit that glitch, almost as a totally new art form. It is most intriguing when these two efforts are shared and a piece is created that is a new type of glitch, still easily identifiable as a part of glitch art.