Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Reflection
Here we have a series of variations of ‘glitched’ artworks.
Figure 1 was the intended result of the image glitch experimentation we were doing in Wednesdays tutorial, that is editing an images makeup through the TXT format and returning it to a JPG format to view the results of the code alterations. However, due to a (rude) disagreement (glitch) from my laptop, I was unable to make this conversion at all. Figure 1 is a natural, that is unedited by me, result of a file conversation from a digital camera SD card to an iPhones camera roll. I just wanted to pop that in there to showcase what a glitch can look like in image form.
Figure 2 was my experimentation on a datamoshing website as a place filler for my inability to manually glitch my photos. I had a lot of fun on this website that generated different effects at the click of the button, but I would not classify these images as ‘glitches’ seeing as it is the result of filters and effects that changes the images appearance, not a destruction of its form. Nonetheless, it’s fun to play around with the differing components of photography; you could liken the white & black photo to a film negative.
Figure 3 is my actual attempt at glitching, in my limited ability to do so, which means, like my other experiments, it is a less literal take… As Cameron outlines ” the glitch reveals qualities that are quite specific to the digital image, in particular a mode of abstraction that is indexed to the invisible yet crucial function of underlying codes.” (2017:336). My approach here was to outline the ways a video is compiled of lots of frames, or photographs, something people know but don’t generally perceive unless the video (or moving image) glitches. The video could be likened to the glitch created when a DVD is scratched, and the scene stutters, replays or fails to progress forward. Similarly, when a video fails to load on a platform such as Netflix, the scenes can jolt by in freeze frames. This was the kind of glitch I was trying to emulate.
I created the video through a series of live photos of my friend dancing (movement = helpful), then I screen-recorded my camera roll as I swiped through the live photos and they played out for a second or two. Its an easy way to conceptualise the fact that a moving image is a bunch of photos cut quickly together. Yet, as the frames per second is not the same rate as a conventional moving image, you can see the stutters, replays and blurs between the live photos when they are placed together. Thus, a glitch if you were to believe that the films origins were in video (and not stills).
I had a lot of fun making this short clip; I think it’s cool to see a variation of how I’d normally understand moving image and it feels sort of abstract in that sense. I wouldn’t say I’m bang on the money with its relation to glitching as per the reading, because the glitch is more in form than the videos makeup in binary codes. I think the association is more loosely linked to the idea of a glitch as an error, and how this would be considered a streaming error if one was trying to watch a non-artistic video. I’ve learnt that I do not understand binary codes and how they create images. No idea at all. Beyond me really. I know that things go wrong, but I do not understand enough to ever know how to fix it. Much to learn.
Don’t really know where to go from here? I’m not entirely sure I’m interested in exploring the world of glitches. It would be nice to be able to creatively make and control them but I have had problems with being able to do that. Though, I do think it would be fun to play around with video glitching; changing frame rates and compression rates and such. I did really like the artistry of the glitching in Evident Utensils (2009) by Chairlift. I’m just not sure that the world of glitching and datamoshing aids the revenue I want to go down of representing human feelings in online spaces.
👾⭐️👾
🎀Physical Glitch ???????? Physical Pixel?????🎀
Bibliography
Cameron A (2017) ‘Facing the Glitch: Abstraction, Abjection and the Digital Image’, in Indefinite Visions Cinema and the Attractions of Uncertainty, Edinburgh University Press, doi.org/10.1515/9781474407137.
Chairliftband (25 October 2009) ‘Chairlift – Evident Utensil (Video)’, Chairliftband, YouTube website, accessed 21 August 2024. https://youtu.be/mvqakws0CeU?si=SuS8oRzF4EJsnYCa
PhotoMosh (2024) PhotoMosh Web, PhotoMosh website, accessed 21 August 2024. https://photomosh.com/app/