I was looking for inspiration from fellow artists who have worked with corruption to increase my subject knowledge. My first problem when researching this was the word ‘corruption’.  Many searches took the word to mean political corruption or corruption within the art establishment. While interesting, this wasn’t what I was looking for.

There are artworks such as the famous work by Tracey Emin, My Bed, which show a form of corruption. A layer of human behaviour which seems to offend elements of society, attracting lots of controversy and angry comment. I have never been sure if this is because people are unable to imagine Emin’s work as art or because the stark view of her life offends those who imagine women should not live like that. This is part of what I am interested in when I think of corruption. A work which has the ability to shock the viewer and to question their assumptions.

After much searching, I found the term net.art or Internet Art which includes software art, browser art and Telematic Art and which, at first glance, seemed close to what I was searching for. These are defined on the Tate website as follows:

• Internet Art: Emerging in the 1990s, “The term is used to describe a process of making art using a computer in some form or other, whether to download imagery that is then exhibited online, or to build programs that create the artwork.”
• Browser Art: “A sub-genre of internet art, browser art is a renegade artwork made as part of a URL that uses the computer as raw material, transforming the codes, the structure of the websites and the links between servers into visual material.”
• Software Art: “In the 1960s, software programs were the digital tool with which artists could create art on computers. Since then, these programs have become so sophisticated that they can now be considered the work of art rather than just a facilitator” Interestingly, this is described as provoking questions on how this art impacts on conceptual art.
• Telematic Art: “interactive art that uses the internet and other digital means of communication, like email and mobile phones” with a focus “on the human aspect of the medium, the desire to communicate with another even in the virtual world.” (Internet Art, no date)

These raised my hopes that I had found what I was looking for but while interesting background, none of these seemed to capture the idea I was looking for of intentionally creating imperfections or errors and using these errors as a symbol for ageing, mistakes and memory. I then found another term called Glitch Art. The Masterclass website describes this as, “a type of media art where video and image files are already or intentionally corrupted to include glitches, creating a stylized viewing experience. What may look like an imperfection is the end goal and a result of the visual artist’s pixel sorting. The glitch aesthetic includes elongated images, pixelization, color [sic] degradation, and double exposure.”

Importantly, this type of art can be made using digital or analogue interventions. (Glitch Art: History of Glitch Art, 2022)

Glitch Art has its roots in Cubism and Dadaism and in breaking down what is seen into a 2-dimensional abstract. “Cubist paintings were often 2-dimennsional broken-up studies of motion, not dissimilar to the relationship a codec has to a video when it breaks down and studies motion vectors in the compression process.” (Bortignon, 2012) This feels like a very technical summary but if I consider what it brings to my practice it seems to make sense. At heart I find the concept of Glitch Art as one which can produce very striking images of great beauty but at the same time with the possibility for disturbing, mind-bending works. This seems to sit very well with my ideas of the liminal and looking into the death space. It deserves further study.

Artists who work in this field.

Len Lye – who produced pioneering works. He is often described as a motion artist.

Daniel Temkin – Temkin’s work makes use of sound to create visual works.(Temkin, 2011) I find this fascinating. Temkin describes how to make works. This is something I have seen a few times. It feels a very democratic and inclusive art form. The image below does not do this work justice. Please go to his website where it shown in much bigger format.

Nam June Paik – Been working in this field since the 1960s. Has image showing large magnet placed on Television tube to create distortion. On the site where I found this, once again there are instructions on how to create Glitch Art. (Goldsberry, 2019)

Rosa Menkman – A Dutch artist. Her work is so corrupted that I find her website hard to engage with as it so full of garish colours and movement. Her Instagram page is less of an assault on the senses. (Menkman, no date a, no date b)

References

Bortignon, N. (2012) Glitches : An introduction. Available at: http://www.nicolabortignon.com/glitches-an-introduction/ (Accessed: 2 February 2024).

Glitch Art: History of Glitch Art (2022) Masterclass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/glitch-art (Accessed: 2 February 2024).

Goldsberry, C. (2019) Nam June Paik, Clark Goldsberry. Available at: https://www.clarkgoldsberry.com/teaching–scraps–notes/category/nam-june-paik (Accessed: 2 February 2024).

Internet Art (no date) Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/i/internet-art (Accessed: 2 February 2024).

Menkman, R. (no date a) || | Bitsbits bits____________________ ///////////////ЯOSΛ MEИKMΛN~~~@~~~DIRDIRDIR A:??blogspot?____________________________________| ||, WordPress. Available at: http://rosa-menkman.blogspot.com/ (Accessed: 2 February 2024).

Menkman, R. (no date b) Rosa Menkman (@_menkman) • Instagram photos and videos, Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/_menkman/?hl=en-gb (Accessed: 2 February 2024).

Temkin, D. (2011) Glitchometry. Available at: https://danieltemkin.com/Glitchometry (Accessed: 2 February 2024).