Glitch For Dummies
English translation of article by Rosa Menkman, one of the key voices in glitch art, offering an introduction to the practice:
Technically, a glitch is best understood as an unexpected, unexplainable consequence of an interruption within one or more (digital) information flows. All these flows of digital information are encoded, often with the help of compressions, to store or transfer data as easy and fast as possible – a technique that is normally obfuscated. However, when you break a flow of data, it will quite possible be corrupted.
When the data of an image is corrupted, this can reveal the language of the compression that breaks through the surface of the image. A technological event that is sometimes used as a tool in art or as a style in design.