Glitch Art Response
As I was watching these videos on glitch art, the one thing that stood out to me most was the quotes by Ellen Ullman. Her perspective really made me think, glitch art isn't just glitch art. In order to even access these things, we must first, have a computer. Within that computer, to access files, we must have internet. Ullman says, and I quote, "We think we are creating the system, but the system is also creating us." This could be taken both positively and negatively. When I personally read this, I had to stop the video for a minute to really think. We created the system to help us, but it is even doing that anymore? It feels like it's controlling us above all things. I dug deeper after this thought and found a video called, "Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology | Ellen Ullman | Talks at Google." My favorite choice of words by Ullman was that "All people are equal, but all opinions are not equal". This shocked me because of how true it is. Not everyone can admit that. We want to believe and say that all people are equal, yet our actions say something completely different. Just like opinions, we say, "of course they are equal" but that's just not the reality of it all. She goes into detail about how the original motive of technology was to discover what human intelligence was. For example, a calculator. The first computers were calculators, "therefore intelligence was in calculation". Chess was considered to be a form of intelligence. Then we started to create for the sole purpose of incorporating into robotics what human beings had. We are the future, we are creating it, but we need to realize we are living in its midst and we are changed by it. I cannot say that the detail of glitch art is not beautiful, as an editor who constantly uses it in After Effects. Yet, I do believe that the high ideals it comes from, are becoming very disorderly.
Christa:
ReplyDeleteYour comments made me think about societal issues like the divide between rich and poor, racial divides, etc. As long as glitch art depends on high-end, or newer, computers and Internet to bring forth someone's creation, it will be only accessible to some. Those artists, or budding artists, without the resources to produce digital media, will still use paint and brushes, spray paint cans as the tools to express their creativity. I think that is why street art is so present in many places, it is more accessible to all.
Thanks Christa, and Vanessa as well. Really interesting to see the issue of equity, race and privilege emerge here. On the question of accessibility, I think you are completely correct that the practice of glitch art (specifically in the form that Briz describes) is reliant on so many systems and products that are expensive. If we consider the impulse of "misuse" of tools and materials to be ever-present and important throughout history, however, then it could simply be seen as the next incarnation of the artist as one who challenges the potentiality of each new communication media or medium of expression. This is why, perhaps, the creative practice of glitch (as Briz describes, in reference to de Certeau's piece, "The Practice of Everyday Life") is sometimes more interesting as an everyday practice or sketchbook process, then as a means to create resolved and static art products. Such a strong debate, let's continue it!
ReplyDeletePlanned obsolescence also creates inevitable inequality in technology.
ReplyDeleteArtists have struggled with the cost of supplies for centuries, though. Until the 19th century they had to mix their own pigments -- every day, because they didn't last -- and they were very expensive. I love to see the ways that artists find to create without spending a lot of money. (I have an artist friend who does all his paintings on used cardboard boxes that he finds around the mill where his studio is.)