Interview for Jamie Boulton

I was recently interviewed by Jamie Boulton for his final-year dissertation. He is currently studying Visual Communication at Birmingham City University, where he’s recently become very interested in glitch art. Below is the whole interview, with links and pictures added by me.

First of all, what is your definition of a glitch?

A glitch is an error or something unexpected.

How did you first come in contact with glitch art? What were your initial impressions of it and what made you pursue it as an art form?

I first became aware of glitch art on 5th May 2009. I was looking for things relating to software art and Stuart Parker mentioned glitch art. I can’t remember what I first thought, but I do remember in the early days that I drew comparisons between it and pixel art.

HLLEO

My first glitch artwork uploaded to Flickr

 

My artwork at the time – portraits and complex digital drawings ([an example]) – was very colourful and noisy, so the visual noise of glitch art really appealed to me.

Explode

These had been inspired by the work of Arturo Herra, whose work I had seen at an exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in 2007.

Where did you learn the skills you use to create glitch art? Did you have previous experience with electronics and computing, or are they skills you picked up as you experimented?

I’ve always been skilled at using computers and I’ve had the ability to write code (albeit not very well) since my undergraduate studies, but only since 2007 have I really begun to experiment with coding, hardware and software. When I came across glitch art I had been running fizzPOP since January of that year. From that I had learnt a bit about circuit-bending but essentially I was a bit of a curious beginner. Everything else since then – learning how to use the command line on Linux, writing code, learning how to use Pure Data, Processing and other creative programming languages – has been driven by my desire to create glitch – or similar – art.

Do you think that digitally produced glitch aesthetics can be as meaningful and expressive as real glitches, or is the technological experimentation part of the art itself?

This is entirely subjective. I’ve seen beautifully constructed glitch-alike artwork created in Processing and other programming languages and I’ve seen horrible, or just generally uninspiring artwork that is create purely through glitches. Although the process of creating the artwork is interesting I’m far more intrigued to see what artwork is created with the technology. To give another perspective consult the Vademecum of digital art, particularly point 8:

If the description of an artwork looks like the catalog of a computer reseller, check if the artwork contains more than mere fascination for technology.

Philosophy time! If a glitch is forced, is it still a glitch?

Nope. I think in order to have true glitches you will have to remove human intervention. Even the act of choosing which glitches to display as glitch art removes the ephemeral nature of glitch art.

Do people often not ‘get’ your work? Are a lot of folk confused by why you do what you do, or do you find that people are more fascinated in it?

A bit of both. My friends often like (and indeed “Like”) what I do but don’t really get what it is or how it’s made. In other words, they appreciate the aesthetic value of glitch art. I did have a situation in March 2012 where I was asked to submit a proposal for a public artwork [that was based on glitch art]. It was rejected on the basis that there was a concern that people would not ‘get’ the artwork.

I think one of the best ways to ‘get’ glitch art is to allow yourself to not ‘get’ it: Appreciate that it is something random, unexpected and possibly very different from anything that you may have seen before.

What do you think about glitch art culture? Is it a fad or has its technological nature birthed a score of genuinely interesting artists?

This question comes around every so often. The first time I remember glitch art being declare a fad was soon after Kanye West released the video for Welcome to Heartbreak. The concern was that everyone would start to produce watered-down commercial glitch art just to make money. This hasn’t happened. Of course, for any style of artwork (see the “grunge” artwork era of the early 2000s) there will be periods of mass popularity, but this won’t, or at least shouldn’t cause the art to decrease in quality. For another insight, see Notes on Glitch, in particular point 44:

There is no question that the glitch aesthetic been co-opted by mainstream media. Kanye West’s video for “Welcome to Heartbreak” (Nabil Elderkin, 2009) is done in a finely tuned, very slick style, using a glitch technique known as “datamoshing.” The artwork that accompanies the soundtrack CD for The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) features glitch stills that would not look out of place in the Flickr Glitch Art pool.21 When glitched images appear in mainstream motion pictures—for instance the Joker’s videos in The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008), or the camcorder footage in Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)—they are always deployed in the name of authenticity, and never in order to call into question the illusion of (digital) cinema itself. Rare is the feature film in which a glitch goes unexcused by the premise of a film-within-a-film. In mainstream popular culture, glitch is deployed not as a marker of artifice, but as a signifier of raw authenticity. It is a digital version of what Garrett Stewart—in describing the “painstakingly hand-defaced” faux newsreels of Citizen Kane—calls “authentication by disrepair,” and in this sense very much a reversion to the analog paradigm.

As long as there are artists that continue to create and innovate in this area then it will evolve. The only thing that I feel will kill glitch art is repetition, over saturation and selfishness. On that latter part, see point 49:

Glitch has embraced the open-source mentality of sharing knowledge, which is rooted in the DIY tradition of punk. When a glitch artist refuses to reveal how work was made, it not only raises a question of whether it is “really” glitch—as opposed to a Photoshopped simulation—but also whether the artist is selfishly hiding their technique in a refusal to contribute to the collective knowledge. This all reflects an anxiety over authenticity and the underlying politics of glitch—something not strictly defined, but which favors cooperation and community over the proprietary motivations of any individual auteur.

Which do you like more; having the end glitched visuals or the process of creating and experimenting to achieve them?

A bit of both. For most of my artwork I like to create new tools (Pure Data patches, processing sketches, shell scripts) to create the new artwork. This approach helps me keep the practice as interesting as the outcome

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Anything where order can be found in chaos. I’m particularly influenced by heavy metal and electronic music. Some of the people I know have strong – usually negative – opinions about this music but I really like trying to find patterns and order in the music, and so too in glitch art.

What are you trying to say through your work, if anything at all? Is there a message that you want to send, and who are you sending it to? Or is your work more for you than anyone else?

It depends on the piece. Through using only open source software I aim to bring creativity via software to more people. Through releasing much of the code and techniques I aim to make digital art more accessible. For an example of a piece that has meaning behind, see What Revolution? and I Am Sitting in a Room. They don’t have very deep meanings but there is more to them than just being pretty.

There are, however, times when I just want to make a pretty picture.

What techniques and equipment do you use most to create your work? What’s your favourite process?

I create almost ll of my artwork on my Dell Studio laptop. Since 2007 I’ve exclusively used Ubuntu Linux. The combination of the two makes for a very capable, if not very powerful, computer to create things on. Occasionally I use old camcorders, VHS tapes, circuit-bent toys (for sounds) and whatever other materials I can find. However, it nearly always is somehow compiled into something on the computer.

In terms of software, for my still images, I mostly use text editors. I did make some scripts to automate some glitch effects – the What Glitch? scripts – but these essentially automate glitching files using a text editor. Despite writing the popular tutorial on databending using Audacity tutorial, I rarely use Audacity in my work. I’m beginning to use Processing a bit more, but even then the output is usually glitched in text editors.

For my performance and VJ work I exclusively use Pure Data. Unlike Mac and Windows, there isn’t a wealth of choice when VJing [on Linux]. You either livecode in Fluxus, attempt to compile VeeJay or build your own software in Pure Data. I chose the latter as it allows me to build software that suits my needs and evolves as I do (the same can be said for similar programs like Max/MSP).

Video mixer V1

An old video mixer, built in Pure Data

 

As far as I’m aware there isn’t a way to produce glitch art using only PD (ok, there is a jpg glitch plugin but I’ve never got it to compile), but it’s great for adding glitch-like effects to videos.

Are there any elements to glitch art that you don’t like?

Nope.

Laptops Meet Musicians Festival 2011 video

The Laptops Meet Musicians Festival happened just over a year ago (11-12th July 2011), and now a video/documentary has surfaced

You can catch the bit about BiLE from 5:10.

On a non-laptop-music note, Venice really is a beautiful city. Birmingham may claim to have more canals than Venice, but the canals in Venice are definitely more picturesque. Staying on an island, however, was not very practical for those who suffer from seasickness (i.e. me)

Laptops Meet Musicians Festival

Venice

Venice Biennale

Some artwork at the Venice Biennale

 

More photos are here

Freecode at The reUNION

On 13th and 14 Jly I was down in London with two other members of Freecode to perform at The reUNION in Southwark, London. Although there’s a description of the venue on the website, it still pleasantly surprised me  upon arrival

Freecode at The reUNION 13-14.07.2012

Freecode at The reUNION 13-14.07.2012

A quick read on their website reveals that this site has been used by EXYZT (the people who built The reUNION) several times and has housed an orchard and Lido, amongst other things. Construction started on this project in June 2012 as part of the London Festival of Architecture

reUNION 06-01 00

The land, prior to construction

Despite being right beneath a railway bridge the space felt very homely and welcoming!

Due to various things the Freecode performance didn’t happen as planned, but myself and Alan did provide visuals for some of the parties in The Washing Machine Club (their cube-shaped club). Thanks to the EXYZT collective for their hospitality!

Freecode at The reUNION 13-14.07.2012

8-Bit Projection Characters

Visuals by Alan

There’s some more photos from myself and Big Richard C

Sunday 15th was brilliant

BYOB Leicester, 4th August 2012

BYOB is coming around again, only this time I’m not organising it (although I am “supporting” it)! BYOB Leicester will take place at the Fabrika Independent Arts Centre (map) on Saturday 4th August

BYOB Leicester

I’ll be “beamering” video work all night, though I’ve yet to decide what video I’ll show. I might even show something new!

They’re still looking for other people to beam, so be sure to apply. Deadline is 24th July 23:59

Freecode at The reUNION, 13th July 2012

On Friday 13th July I’ll be performing with Freecode at The reUNION in London from around 6pm

The reUNION is a new Public House, in the spirit of the 1830 Beer Act in which anyone could apply for a licence and open up their front room to the public, to sell – and even brew – beer from their own home.

It’s all free and will be going on till about 22:30. Directions can be found here, although it’s a 5 minute walk from Southwark or Borough Tube station, so should be easy to find

GLI.TC/H HDD

as part of the Kickstarter we launched last year for GLI.TC/H 20111 we offered various physical media from different artists as incentives, these ranged from DVDs to VHS tapes to NES cartridges. One such incentive was conceived by Morgan Higby-Flowers and Jeff Donaldson (aka noteNdo) and curated/produced by Jeff Donaldson and myself (Nick Briz). This was a 20GB Engraved HDD with worx (and often source files) from an array of glitch artists. Because only 9 (for kickstarter supporters) of these were produced, no one (including the artists who donated their files) really got a chance to see these.

The list: Kim Asendorf Nick Briz Curt Cloninger Arcangel Constantini Cracked Ray Tube Theo Darst Jeff Donaldson Jake Elliot Jimmy Joe Roche Ronan Letoqueux Rosa Menkman and Johan Larsby Iman Moradi Takeshi Murata Antonio Roberts Jon Satrom Sherpa Phillip Stearns Daniel Temkin UCNV Vaudeo Signal

I almost forgot about these being made, so thanks to Nick Briz/GLI.TC/H for taking photos and a video.

It’s been so long that I can’t fully remember what I contributed to the HDD, but whatever it was I hope the nine people with one of these enjoy it!