Attempting Glitch Art

Welcome, today I’m going to take my first step into the big, wide world of internet trends and a e s t h e t i c s …

First of all, what is glitch art?

“Glitch art is the practice of using digital errors for aesthetic purposes.”

So what does that really mean?

“Glitch art means intentionally corrupting digital data. It creates unusual visual effects.”

In recent decades there has been a big shift within media audiences from being passive consumers to becoming active participants. This means that in this day and age, anyone can be both a consumer and a producer of content.

Digitisation has dissolved the boundary between production and conception.

With virtually no cost, or risk, individuals are able produce content without a filter. Consequently, this lack of filter has lead to the emergence of new trends such as glitch art and vaporwave.

(Interested? You can read more about the history of glitch art here.)

According to Terrence Morash (in this article) glitch art is, “a paradoxical balance of being both futuristic and retro, reflecting an unsettling near-future while referencing the low-fi technology of the past.”

“Glitch appeals to designers for its dystopian yet futuristic look and feel. There’s a controlled imperfection to it and it’s a reminder of the technical elements of design,”

Morash explains that, “No other trend has surfaced quite as much as glitch. It is ubiquitous, and we have seen it emerge in fashion, branding, TV and film, as well as packaging and out-of-home campaigns. Although searches for the term glitch had only increased by 32 percent from the previous year, our internal creative and trends review team noted its potential to climb further in the design ranks this year.

I don’t believe we have reached peak glitch yet.”

As such, if the trend of glitch art and glitch a e s t h e t i c s is only growing I thought I’d have a crack at it. So, here we have my very first attempt at this using some of my photos from my latest overseas adventure in France..