Every now and then I take it upon myself do a historical Artist of the Month (AOTM) week for the Glitch Artists Collective’s Instagram page. Below is an archive of the few I have done since 2021 on Instagram. I did take a break from curating for about a year or two, hence the gap.

Will have to dig up the AOTM’s on FB at some point…

Artist of The Month (January 2025): Technology & Glitch

  • Artist Nam June Paik and engineer Shuya Abe developed this groundbreaking tool for shaping analog video signals during Paik's residency at WGBH-TV, a public television station in Boston. This tool allowed artists to distort, layer, and colorize video footage in real time. By using oscillators and modulators, the synthesizer emphasized signal manipulation for creativity, whereas most other related machines at the time had more scientific, technical, or commercial applications.

    Other artists, such as Ben Laposky, Woody & Steina Vasulka, and Robert Moog, were all contributing and laying the groundwork for the fusion of art and technology that would later define video synthesis as an artistic medium.

  • Raster graphics and compression algorithms have been pivotal in digital imaging and media transmission, balancing efficiency with visual fidelity. Unlike resolution-independent vector graphics, raster images rely on pixel grids, making them susceptible to degradation and distortion when resized or recompressed. The development of frame buffers in the 1960s and 1970s allowed computers to store and manipulate images pixel-by-pixel, leading to modern bitmap graphics. Lossy compression formats like JPEG and MP3, built on Nasir Ahmed’s Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT, 1973, picture shown in this post), drastically reduced file sizes by discarding "unnecessary" data, often producing pixelation, macroblocking, and color banding—flaws that inadvertently expose the structure of digital encoding. Initially seen as limitations, these artifacts have driven innovations in adaptive compression, AI-enhanced upscaling, and formats like AVIF and HEVC, improving efficiency and quality in modern digital media, as well as drastically influencing digital media aesthetics.

  • Hex editors—which display binary data in hexadecimal (base-16) format—and other data manipulation tools allow users to directly modify the raw code of digital files, exposing the underlying structure of software, images, audio, and video. Originally developed for debugging and reverse engineering, early tools like IBM’s machine code editors (1960s-70s) and Norton Disk Editor (1980s) provided low-level access to file structures, making it possible to inspect and manually alter data. As these tools evolved, user-friendly hex editors such as WinHex and HxD (1990s-2000s) introduced real-time memory editing, game modifications, and digital forensics, expanding their role beyond programming into creative experimentation. By altering values at a low level, users can induce glitches, distortions, or unexpected behaviors, revealing how digital media is encoded and processed. Some early Glitch Artists that come to mind are those who have helped teach others how to create with these tools, such as @emeaney1 (pictured), @markaklink , @nbriz , @recyclism , and Ant Scott.

  • The rise of internet and networked media (1990s-2000s) introduced new forms of digital glitches, many emerging from the fragility of data transmission and compression algorithms. As images, audio, and video files traveled across unstable connections, data corruption, compression artifacts, and packet loss frequently occurred, showing the fragile and fragmented nature of digital encoding. Early internet speeds and limited bandwidth led to glitch aesthetics born from necessity, with pixelated JPEGS, lagging video streams, and distorted audio defining the digital experience. The ubiquitous Netscape broken image icon (the posted picture), created by graphic designer Marsh Chamberlin, became a visual marker of missing or failed media, highlighting the impermanence and unpredictability of online content. Peer-to-peer file sharing, torrenting, and early streaming platforms such as RealPlayer and YouTube (2005) further amplified these effects, as recompressed media accumulated lossy degradation over time. These networked glitches were no longer tied to local hardware but became a product of global digital circulation.

  • dadfad

As an example of AOTM: Technology & Glitch (1/5), I shared a piece stellaparticula.

As an example of AOTM: Technology & Glitch (2/5), I shared a piece by r.c.g._a_v using a drugstm_ circuit bent PlayStation2.

As an example of AOTM: Technology & Glitch (3/5), I shared takeshimurata’s, Pink Dot (2007)

As an example of AOTM: Technology & Glitch (4/5), I shared, heads 0184 series, by @markaklink

Klink's tutorial on 3D glitching is still live: www.srcxor.org/blog

As an example of AOTM: Technology & Glitch (4/5), I shared, Olia Lialina’s, My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996) which fragments a conversation across broken images and clickable frames, mirroring the disjointed rhythms of early web browsing. Its pixelated GIFs, empty spaces, and scattered hyperlinks evoke the instability of online communication, where meaning is shaped by delay, loss, and interruption. A quiet yet fractured narrative unfolds, as if pieced together from a damaged transmission, making the browser itself part of the experience.

www.art.teleportacia.org

Artist of The Month (June 2022): Works by/things about artists in the LGBTQIA+ Glitch community

A preface, as there were a number of messages the GAC insta received about “tokenism” during this AOTM - - - queerness and Glitch Art have historical connection. I decided to share works from that part of our community specifically during the designated month of pride as a means to highlight the direct linkage for any/all who perhaps weren’t aware of it. The messages GAC received reminded me that many viewers are new, come around only sometimes, do not research effectively, or simply have their own idea of what Glitch Art means to them and therefore the threads of LGBTQIA+ may create tension. Whichever the case, to deny historical connection is objectively innaccurate.

As an example of AOTM: Technology & Glitch (4/5), I shared, heads 0184 series, by @markaklink

Klink's tutorial on 3D glitching is still live: www.srcxor.org/blog

  • Released in 1976, this was the first home video game console to use interchangeable ROM cartridges, revolutionizing gaming by introducing programmable software instead of built-in games.
    .
    Developed by Jerry Lawson and his team at Fairchild Semiconductor, the system featured a simple microprocessor that enabled more complex game logic but also introduced unexpected graphical and gameplay glitches due to programming limitations. Though it did not foster a strong glitch art culture at the time, its architecture set the stage for later consoles, where software corruption, hardware quirks, and hacking would become central to both aesthetic and interactive experimentation.
    .
    Video game consoles have profoundly influenced Glitch Art, with earlier systems making particularly visible contributions due to their technological constraints and vulnerabilities. One of the earliest recorded glitch-based artworks, Jamie Fenton’s Digital TV Dinner (1979), was created on the Bally Astrocade (1978) by physically manipulating the cartridge to generate and capture chaotic, unpredictable visuals. The Atari 2600 (1977) exhibited glitchy behavior due to its reliance on cartridges and severe memory limitations, making unintended behaviors a common occurrence. The Nintendo Entertainment System (1983) was notoriously prone to cartridge glitches, and its sprite flickering became a defining aesthetic of NES-era games. The Sega Genesis (1988) introduced an FM synthesis chip that, when pushed beyond expected use, produced distinctive glitch sounds, influencing later glitch music experimentation. The Sony PlayStation (1994), with its CD-based format, brought new forms of glitches—scratched or improperly burned discs could distort textures, create audio skips, and disrupt game physics, adding an element of media degradation to digital play.
    .
    With their unique blend of interactive engagement and evolving technology, video game consoles have not only reshaped digital media but have also deeply influenced Glitch Art. 🕹🎮🎲
    .
    📷1&2:The Video Game Critic