This is a project in glitch art from my Digital Imaging course at Bowling Green State University.
original scanography piece and altered glitch version
This glitch image was created by implementing multiple of the techniques we learned in class. First, I edited the audio version of the image in Audacity. I utilized the compression effect numerous times until the major forms of my creative scan were outlined in vibrant strokes of neon colors. I then opened the jpeg of my image with TextEdit and altered it by using Find and Replace on a very selective group of a few hundred characters. This created the straight lines that are cutting into the image from its right side. By limiting the amount of characters replaced, I was able to prevent the entire image from being covered in lines and thus completely unrecognizable.
I used this approach to create a more subtle glitch, my creative scan maintaining many of the original colors in its background and thus its ominous tone. The process was certainly experimental, involving dozens of attempts at creating the right balance between the original scan’s elements and these new glitch features. Many of the Audacity effects that I found successful in our glitch exercises such as equalization, invert, and phaser were simply too harsh and dramatic of a change to the image. I felt that they blurred too many elements of my creative scan and thus were not a proper fit. TextEdit also posed several challenges as the image often became covered in lines and thus indistinguishable.
For these reasons, I found the seemingly spontaneous nature of forming glitches to actually require more thought and intention than the process seems to imply. As Jeff Donaldson states in his article “Glossing over Thoughts on Glitch. A Poetry of Error,” artists today pursue the provoked glitch as they deliberately exploit the errors new media inherently possesses. Although glitches do occur unprompted, their qualities can be beneficially harnessed when approached in this careful yet carefree manner. One must be both discerning as to which glitch elements will enhance their piece while also realizing that there is an unpredictable nature to the process of creating such effects.
Thus, I think my experimentation with glitch art was successful. I was able to engage in this art of creating unpredictable errors and leaning into imperfection in order to create new expressions that only a new media byproduct could achieve.
