Category: Humdinger Blog

It took me ten years to figure out what a ‘humdinger’ was. I thought it was an insult…

The Distorted Truth In Glitch

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Random, Chaotic, Unexpected and Unpredictable –  Not Just ‘®adical’

Glitch is honest. It’s raw. It’s the visual shorthand for the digital underground. Menacing, uncomfortable and oddly macho-geek, It’s also beautifully inconsistent and a perfect foil for streamlined digital media culture. Fashion re-appropriates, design manipulates and art creates. This is all part of the constant remixing of culture, perfect for the feedback loop of glitch. Is glitch the last true art form or is it just a ghost in the machine? Perhaps our future depends on the kind of thinking being applied to the recycling of digital material and perhaps those working with the idea of disruption will balance an increasingly owned digital landscape. It’s happening in reality…


‘Forms of graphic ‘distortion’ are now common to the internet, perhaps complementary to the almost bathroom-like sterility of web standards, or to demonstrate the infinite shaping and reshaping of memes and visuals as part of an evolutionary process authored by everyone and no one.’ Metahaven


The Dirty New Media

“There are those who would say that glitch art is a form of resistance, not just a representation,”  explains Jon Cates, New Media professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago is a centre of glitch momentum in the US, if not the world and Cates is at the vanguard of it’s discovery. “Jason Scott, historian and archivist for Archive.org, has called our Chicago-based community the ‘birthplace of dirty new media’ and Rosa Menkmanhas written that we foreground glitch art in a way which has become a ‘pivotal axis’ of the international glitch scene” explains Cates.
YouGlitch Logo
One way on engaging a global audience has been the recent birth of Uglitch an upload site based on the YouTube model. Site founder Benjamin Gaulon aka Recyclism explains the site’s reference to YouTube and its users by saying  “We are building a database of glitch GIFs that can then be used for new work by us and others, we are starting to see similar types of uploads [to YouTube] with  short edited film clips and the like to create glitches”.

YouGlitch Logo
‘Having networks that facilitate the sharing and creation of images (Tumblr, dump.fm, and Google+) allow communities to form and build memetic value in a hyper-connected fashion. Information splicing with information.’ Travis Stearns 

The GIF file format has been around since the birth of the internet and is a natural means for carrying visual glitches. Designer Travis Stearns explains the attraction: “their aesthetic is something digital natives are quite familiar with, but as an accessible art and communication medium they haven’t been given much attention until this current point where democratisation of the tools for creating animations are universal and available to everyone. Having networks that facilitate the sharing and creation of images (Tumblr, dump.fm, and Google+) allow communities to form and build memetic value in a hyper-connected fashion. Information splicing with information.”

Style V Substance
‘Many artists do see glitch as a tool for critiquing popular culture, but many see it simply as a nostalgic–8bit generation–aesthetic, others as digital psychedelia, others as a lens through which to dissect language + linguistics, and others yet, as a purely structuralist/materialist practice.’ Nick Briz

“Over the past couple of years the visual glitch has become commodified. It’s now just another filter in the designer’s arsenal, at least as far as the gliche (glitch cliche) is concerned.” notes Ant Scott one of the first glitch VJ’s now staunch artist under the name Beflix. The Glitch community is as fractured and distorted as the work it produces. GLI.TC/H the annual global new media festival that brings everything together. Nick Briz co-founder and co-organiser of the festival explains the diversity of the scene and the balance between commercial and ‘punk ethos as“[It’s] evident from all the debates that glitch.errz partake in glitch art for very different reasons. We had plenty of ‘punks’ present but we also had designers who work at ad agencies.”

Beflix GL:QU



So what of the commercialisation of the genre? According to Briz this can be split up into two different concepts. One is the commodification of genre, the other is it’s commercialisation. 

“Many glitch artists believe that glitch art can not become a genre, it defies codification in it’s form” explains Briz, “That to combine the two words (glitch + art) and to imply that it’s a genre or category is to undermine glitch’s potential. They believe glitch is at it’s best when it is random, chaotic, unexpected and unpredictable. While I appreciate this position and support the sentiment I do think it’s a bit problematic and ultimately not true… of course glitch art is a genre, still it’s important to address that such a debate is being had. 

‘ I got pretty upset when Kanye West released his video “Welcome To Heartbreak” almost exactly three years ago. I thought it was the end of glitch art’ Nick Briz

Next is it’s commercialisation. I’m not a big fan of this word, it simplifies a complicated process with inescapably negative connotations.  Rather, I think popularisation is a better term, it’s a slightly more complex perspective. I got pretty upset when Kanye West released his video “Welcome To Heartbreak” almost exactly three years ago. I thought it was the end of glitch art. I had been making this kind of work for a few years, it was a complicated process and one I felt could only be executed with careful consideration of the material. I thought his video would be the end of such a process and the beginning of a commercialized gimmick. And in some ways it was, datamoshing (the technique he “popularized” but by no means invented) got really “hot”, and hundreds of shit videos got uploaded to youtube in its wake. At the same time it transformed a community of maybe a few dozen artists (that I knew of at least) into a few hundred artists.”


It’s not just Kayne West that’s tipping the scale, more recently CK One wanted to shock and sniffed out glitch to add some credibility to their campaign…

Music and entertainment need not be pimped and perfumed. Andrew Benson teaches at the Design and Technology department at San Francisco Art Institute and works for a number of musicians including the masterfully awkward Aphex Twin.
  

Following a more mainstream alternative, a well travelled field of light artists working with musicians, Benson explains the glitch scene in San Francisco as “The bay area has a really rich history of experimental non-narrative cinema. I  hate to say it but I also think the popularity of dubstep has been really good for introducing kids to weird sounds, glitchy artefacts and getting them engaged.”  Benson is at the top of his field, innovating live performance whilst handling engagement with a wider audience, manipulating and creating aesthetic.
Melvin Galapon



The graphic design community manipulates the aesthetics of glitch, harking back to halcyon days Melvin Galapon is a UK-based designer who works on both commercial and artistic projects using glitch and dot matrix as an aesthetic basis for his work. He suggests “there is a kind of movement where using glitches and dot matrix is retro-cool as the generation of people currently creating work come from an era where this was part and parcel of the technology we are all a part of”


We’re comfortable looking at screens and connecting to networks that show nothing but beauty and an obsession with perfectionism. To this end, distortion is closer to the reality of our fractured, temporal information society.’ Travis Stearns


Travis Stearn
Explaining the relationship that designers have with glitch Travis Stearns explains “I relate distortion in the current context of the internet to punk communication art, particularly xerox flyers and zines. HD screens are hanging everywhere now. The new objects of desire, our smart phones and iPads, favor minimalism and vast white space. We’re comfortable looking at screens and connecting to networks that show nothing but beauty and an obsession with perfectionism. To this end, distortion is closer to the reality of our fractured, temporal information society.”

The Accidental Anarchists
The design team at Bloomberg Businessweek have shown a passion for observing the glitch, error and disruption of graphics by recently publishing their printer errors, entitled Printer Tragedies as a batch of artwork on Flickr. This light hearted look at digital errors reveals a deeper attraction for ‘wrong’ graphics.
Splash_11519
Printer Tragedies from the  Bloomberg Businessweek printer
Jennifer Daniel, designer for BBW explains “I guess what I’m attracted to is how these visual interruptions create spatial correlations that have always existed but no one else saw. Being able to find something that no one else has articulated is what so many creative consciously try to do. And it turns out you don’t even need to have a conscious to do it.”

Transparency
Eco and media conscious advertising campaigns have also adapted the ‘warts and all’ transparency of glitch. AnitaFontaine, digital artist and Art Director of Champagne Valentine explains her work for fashion brand Edun: “We were inspired by the raw textures from the collection and we wanted to make a digital experience that felt more organic than digital. We love the effect of being able to scratch away the truth behind the lies, or vice versa, and literally being able to do that as means of moving through the experience.”


Speaking of the relevance to glitch and branding, Fontaine suggests “glitch and disturbance makes a work or experience seem imperfect and therefore more real. It’s important that we mix the real and the virtual, blurring the boundaries – it’s what people are used to now in these new hybrid realities we immerse ourselves in everyday.”

WikiLeaks scarf
Design by Metahaven; Photo by Meinke Klein
WikiLeaks scarf
Design by Metahaven; Photo by Meinke Klein

Transparency also has a political connotation and the self appointed bastion for this is the notorious Wikileaks organisation. Dutch design company Metahaven took on the job of fund raising for the organisation and produced a number of products including a scarf, complete with distorted Louis Vuitton graphics as well as mugs and T-Shirts. The work was recently featured in an exhibition at the Museum of The Image (formerly The Graphic Design Museum) in Breda, Netherlands.


Metahaven explain the link between graphic distortion and the Internet are linked by saying “forms of graphic ‘distortion’ are now common to the Internet, perhaps complementary to the almost bathroom-like sterility of web standards. or to simply demonstrate the infinite shaping and reshaping of memes and visuals as part of an evolutionary process authored by everyone and no one.”
‘…A whole new approach that combines today’s possibilities in technology, (neo)craft, social media and advertising to create a new world image’ Dennis Elbers.
Dennis Elbers, curator at the Museum Of The Image explains the relevance of this “Designers have the ability to make this world transparent. This is what we need opposed to hierarchy. And I’m not just talking about ‘green annual reports’ but a whole new approach that combines today’s possibilities in technology, (neo)craft, social media and advertising to create a new world image.”
As for far reaching impact of glitch beyond graphics, Benjamin Gaulon aka Recyclism, has this to say: “current technological design strategies, based on the notion of disposable devices and planned obsolescence, need to be challenged in order to find more sustainable models. By exploring other routes such as hardware hacking and recycling strategies of obsolete technology I believe we can to develop new sustainable models.” 


Glitch is not disposable, it is the error of our digital ways if we think it is. 

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Print That Won’t Dye

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Why is screen printing, silkscreening and letterpress so popular?
What is it about print? Surely we should all be living in a Blade Runner world by now yet the only blades I see are squeegees.

Poster for Bloomington Print Collective by Izzy Jarvis,2011



Socially Attractive and Personality Driven. The craft movement has been gaining  popularity for past few years through the combination of social media and digital cottage industries as well as social scene craft nights and shared studio spaces dedicated to print. The fine art / design / illustration crossover has blossomed within university courses that allow for hybrid courses and the extension into print studio / gallery / art spaces. Design, illustration and print has been brought further into the fold of commercial art leading to the cult of the graphic design celebrity or ‘one man brand’. 
The Economy Fad:  Desire for Individuality. Part of the craft explosion, ad agencies adopt a printed or childlike aesthetic which is shorthand for ‘We’re one of you. We’re quirky enough to hire artists, also, please note we are sensible with cash’ :The more fingerprints on the page the more friendly the brand. 
Also we’re all obsessed with nostalgia, anything that involves graft, recycling, digging your own potatoes whilst wearing a tin helmet wins.
I suspect however that screen printing is popular because it’s lots and lots of fun.
I asked a few print agitators what they thought…


Print Club London
‘Expose your work to a world outside of the creative sector, It’s really key in expanding what we all do.” Kate Newbold, Director Print Club London.’

“When we founded Print Club London 5 years ago there were no other silk screen printing studios like ours, most people used college facilities or small beds in their houses, all very low-fi. But we thought that with the growing interest in the craft movement people would want/need space to print their own work and indeed they did. What emerged was the HUGE number of people wanting to learn silk screen printing. That the courses we run are hugely popular is testament not only to the popularity of silk screen printing as a product to be sold, but also that it is a process that is continuing to grow. I always imagined at some point we would stop selling workshops and the craze would die down but it hasn’t. We also have a gallery on brick lane and such as been the demand for bigger facilities at PCL that we have now opened up a newly built unit in our warehouse for desk designers called Millers Junction. We see young graduates thinking about design as a business. Be good at design but also be better at selling your own brand and marketing yourself. Expose your work to a world outside of the creative sector which is really key in expanding what we all do.”
‘I think the overall outcome from the current wave of ‘graphic design celebrities’ is ultimately a positive one” Caspar Williamson, author of  Reinventing Screenprinting’ 
“It is easier to sell artwork if it is marketed. I think a lot of people have seen the way artists such as Banksy have skyrocketed– £50 screeenprints suddenly appearing for £10,000 in auction and the buzz that is created around artists and designers that become the ‘it girls/boys’ of the art world. Lots of auction houses, art fairs and art agents have seen this happen and are on the hunt for ‘the next big thing’ constantly. However I think the overall outcome from the current wave of ‘graphic design celebrities’ is ultimately a positive one, as it pushes people to be come up with continually more creative and original work if you don’t want to simply be written of as a rip-off or copy-cat.”

Dan Mather

‘Experimentation is vital to the development of a solid portfolio, understanding and confidence in the process of silkscreen.’
“Developing my practice of the screen print process is not an individual accomplishment. Working in a shared studio not only offers a insight into the approaches of other printers but offers a chance of learning, critiquing, support and encouragement (and jealousy). When printing in a shared studio, for me, there is a noticeable difference between those who are designers printing for themselves and those more on the side of commercial printing. Experimentation is vital to the development of a solid portfolio, understanding and confidence in the the process of silkscreen. A sense of ownership is a part of a design and print occupation.”
Dan Mather, still from film 2012
‘Brands disappear overnight, record labels shut down as quickly as they start up, pop up shops and exhibitions are more popular than starting up a gallery long-term and working at a reputation because so many of these things are too inaccessible’
“With the prominence of social networking and the constant sharing of work and ideas which are then blogged and tweeted about, even the tiniest letterpress or screen printing studio in the middle of nowhere can now receive an extraordinary amount of attention in comparison to previous generations. I guess it’s also fuelled by the state of the economy – as things get worse, people return to DIY and there’s definitely been a zine revival… but also, small, independent businesses don’t need to go to a big printer for a big order of merchandise. There are many T-shirt or record labels that put out 3 items and then merge or disappear into the unknown. I suppose the ‘pop up’ trend may just be a symptom of the general lack of permanence across the board.”

Jennifer Mehigan,illustration and Found Images,2011

Brands disappear overnight, record labels shut down as quickly as they start up, pop up shops and exhibitions are more popular than starting up a gallery long-term and working at a reputation because so many of these things are too inaccessible. Ideas and brands don’t plan for a legacy as much, I guess, and I think this is also largely related to the social media idea. The whole formal system idea to being an artist or a designer is changing, we are cutting a lot of the middle men cut out and I’m a fan.
‘There is a huge opportunity for handmade products to include these [digital] interactions’ Co-owner, Ink Meets Paper, Daniel Nadeau
“I think consumers are getting more and more comfortable with digital interactions. There is a huge opportunity for handmade products to include these interactions, but the challenge is to use technology in a way that authentically complements their handcrafted nature. Developers spend all of their time shaping and crafting code, just as a woodworker spends all his time shaping and crafting wood. I think we are just now becoming comfortable enough with technology in our daily lives to start exploring the dialog that exists between the physical and digital.”
Ink Meets paper, QR Business Card, 2011

Once people are comfortable with that dialog, really cool opportunities arise. We are already working on geo-location features to point the viewer towards the nearest retailer, as well as sharing details of the card easily through social networks. I’ve been asked several times if we’ll always use QR codes for our card backs. I always joke with Allison that in 5 years we’re going to have to learn how to incorporate microchips into the paper. Technology moves fast, but it’s constantly giving us more ways to authenticate the products we create. It can be overwhelming though, considering all of the nuances of these interactions. Sometimes it would be nice to just print cards, but when you see that dialog click and watch the viewer take that step to learn more about what they bought or received, it’s all worth it.
‘Consumers have lost faith I guess and the hand rendered / craft approach emotes nostalgia’
Kate Gibb, Hand 5, 2011

“I do feel that part of the success of the hand rendered approach also has to do with our current and past financial climate of the last few years.  Not just an aesthetic change in culture and creative trends. Consumers have lost faith I guess and the hand rendered / craft approach emotes nostalgia, feels familiar and subtly instils a kind of trust from a product.”

‘Letterpress and other traditional printing techniques are manual processes that perfectly coexist with digital graphic design’ Christian Majonek 

Gebirge, Christian Majonek

“I began my graphic design studies at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, in October
of 2009. This school is one of only a handful of schools in Germany where you can find
traditional studios for manual typesetting, wood cutting, screen printing, lithography, etc.
The school offers classes where students are able to study these old traditions, their origin and history. This is not only extremely interesting but also helped me find my
own personal art. Letterpress and other traditional printing techniques are manual
processes that perfectly coexist with digital graphic design. In my opinion, the two can
also inspire and profit from one another.” 
Carey Ellis
‘The smaller, more individual designers are keeping the traditions alive’
“Fashion, like any other art from will move with the times and reflect new technologies including the rise in digital print. Traditional screen printing goes hand in hand with fashion, and anyone involved with the industry will instantly see the unique craftsmanship that goes with screen printing that cannot be fulfilled by digital. I work with both techniques, but have more of an attachment to my work that i produce using screens because of the handmade element.
Carey Ellis, Sway, BA Textile Design Degree Show 2011

I think many designers today use digital print as it is great for mass production, but the smaller more individual designers are keeping the traditions alive and ensuring that screen printing is still fashionable. With the economic climate, the fashion conscious will be buying less and instead getting more one off special timeless pieces, which will help those designers who screen print as the item will be not only more unique, it will be special.”

Trillusion – Final Major Project from Carey Ellis on Vimeo.


Is this a fair summary?

What do you think the current excitement over print is down to?





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Designer Fund – Starting Up The Empowerment Of Designers

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Designer Fund – Starting Up The Empowerment Of Designers This article first appeared in The Huffington Post UK site on 5/12/12

With the second round of applications underway from December 1st running until January 15th Silicon Valley based Designer Fund aims to put designers in front of investors and mentors to start up enterprises with a foundation in design. Design is a big word but it makes sense to give those that create the opportunity to dictate how their ideas develop into businesses and products.

London and Ahmedabad, India, based Superflux are one of ten start ups to assisted by Designer Fund having applied back in July. Why did they choose to apply to the fund? “Their website said they would give initial seed funding, mentorship, spaces to work and develop a prototype. We were in very early stages, so any funding and mentorship would be great, that’s what we were looking for” explains Anab Jain, co-founder (with Jon Ardern) of Superflux.

Is there an attraction to Silicon Valley in that it’s the home of start up? Is this a unique selling point for Designer Fund? “From our perspective that was the man attraction” continues Jain, “we had been looking at funds here in the UK too, for instance the Technology Strategy Board UK who also fund startups but it looked like we needed to produce match funding. What attracted us to Designer Fund was the word ‘designer’ and the fact that they wanted to help designers become entrepreneurs, one could immediately sense an empathy that was unique.” What does the word entrepreneur mean to Superflux? “I guess it means that we ‘make our idea real’ – as designers – we don’t wait for clients or commissions, but go for it on our back, and get a product into the market, see what happens” says Jain.

Is there a mentality gap between the US and UK in risk taking and thinking of design, not as an add on? “We had heard about the openness of the valley folks, but really its been amazing, the response, the speed and just the attitude” notes Jain, “however things have changed a lot in the UK recently there is a lot more interest and enthusiasm. Nonetheless, just from experience, if the folks at Designers Fund put us in touch with a valley based potential investor or mentor they immediately get back to us, chat with us, and want to know where we are at and want to stay in touch, but on the other hand,from the introductions we had from them for UK based people? We haven’t heard back from any of them.”

A pity, there is plenty to choose from in the form of government funded initiatives, loosely connected to government being seen ‘to do the right thing’. Tech City a recent stamp of approval from Whitehall of the Old Street area of London being a creative ‘hub’ – how I hate that word, appears to be a top heavy civil service exercise in cool, band wagon jumping after the band has already played venture. We need to reach out further. Can Designer Fund help the globalisation of innovation economy or are we all still bound by national divide? “I really hope that would be possible, but perhaps we might not quite be there yet. Taxation laws are very different between UK and US for instance, US investors are hesitant to invest in UK companies unless we moved there” explains Jain, “our goal will be to attract UK investors, especially when the government seems so keen on helping entrepreneurs at home, and with the Tech City buzz, we really hope people at home will be the ones to call on.”

Should we rely on the government for change when it comes to imaginative solutions to technology and design? Perhaps we can help them, perhaps we don’t need them. A difficult union for sure. Perhaps we just need a bit of Californian sunny disposition. The Designer Fund is accepting new applicants for investments until January 15th, visit The Designer Fund for more information Tweet