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Glitch: The Contemporary Aesthetic

Activity: Talk or presentation typesInvited talk

1/06/2016

A keynote talk at Onassis Centre, Athens, the city's major contemporary art institution.

The glitch is a term used to describe the “mess that is a moment” when systems break or falter, and disgorge themselves. Glitch Art capitalizes on, captures and instigates these messy media moments, producing what has been described as "the only true aesthetic of software". But many of its signature styles are well known now, and not at all surprising.
Meanwhile our world is increasingly augmented and governed by glossy screens and shadowy algorithms, and surely the mandate for making glitches happen as part of critical-creative practices is greater than ever?
Whether literally, as screens, autocorrect functions and tax codes, of figuratively as ideologies by which our cognitive resources are partitioned and processed in search of excess value, the digital is at saturation point - and so is the threat and potency of the glitch.

This talk by Nathan Jones explores the explosion of glitch aesthetics, documenting its dissolution as pre-packaged filters and pop-culture textures, and exploring its afterlife in the new horizons of technological mediation. Using references from literature, media, performance and philosophy, and a variety of visual and audio examples, this talk will introduce the concept and practices of glitch aesthetics, and ask provocative questions about its ongoing potentials to shock.

External organisation (Commissioned by)

NameOnassis