The birth and rebirth of the glitch

This investigation of the glitch in electronic media, previously disregarded as errors in the medium and therefore often begrudgingly tolerated by viewers rather than considered a form of artistic gesture, will discuss the role and function of mistakes and imperfections in the evolution of digital and analogue electronic screen media aesthetics. The formal tendencies of artists who incorporate glitch, sometimes as a side effect of their activity, in assisting the cultural acceptance of these ‘artefacts’, will be discussed. I’ll briefly discuss a history of the word glitch from its early uses in the aerospace industry in the 1960s, as a music genre in the 1990s to slang in the gaming world of the 2000s. A discussion on the nature and differences between digital and analogue media, associated formats and glitches is undertaken from a historical perspective. Historical breakthroughs where the glitch has played a major role in the creative and scientific fields are also profiled