Glitch Art
Thoughts on Glitch Art as art:
The word "beauty" is often included in definitions of art. This is odd to me since beauty is a subjective concept, but beauty is also often at odds with another part of the common definition of art: expressing important ideas or feelings. Feelings can be dark, ugly, conflicted, etc. I think Glitch Art can be random acts of experimentation or it can be something deeper if it is taken beyond the random steps, to include some intellectual engagement. At that point it can be considered art. I don't think all painting is art, either. We have probably all seen portraits that are simply accurate renderings of a person's likeness and then we have seen portraits that seem to look into a person's soul at the same time. The former is more craft and the latter art, in my opinion. This goes for Glitch Art, too. One can play around, or one can get at something deeper. And, the fact that technology dictates the glitch art to a large degree doesn't necessarily preclude it being art. All art mediums have restrictions. Some of a painter's restrictions are the kind of paper, the quality of the paint, the skill of the painter and the environmental conditions that one is creating in.
I haven't been very successful at getting files to open in glitchy ways yet. It has been frustrating, but then one can't learn to paint in just a few days, either.
On a side not, I had never heard of the WWF file format - the one that is like a PDF but can't be printed, so as to save paper. What a concept!
Jadebnj,
ReplyDeleteI agree, restrictions are always present and the artist has to work around them or use them to their advantage. It may be that the first artists that can work around restrictions or take advantage of them are true innovators.
It is interesting to imagine a political or cultural bias that is built into something as inane as a file type, but I think Briz does a good job to use the WWF file, for instance, to illustrate his point. We are all operating within an environment (the digital sphere), and therefore we acquiesce to certain norms, uses, and behaviors in order to survive within it. I love how this fact becomes a microcosm for all languages and communication systems, really, in that we must adapt to their commonly accepted structures and boundaries. To this end, I think you pose a great question about creative USE, and in what conditions does a technical or creative process (craft) result in a valuable artistic product or message? This is the start of an open-ended and RICH debate!
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