What is specific about digital image and how can digital aesthetics be

described through a reference to glitch? Give examples.

"I think it is a privilege of our generation to witness the amazing

evolutions of a new style: the electronic art. The same thing only
happened twice in the western culture's history: 150 years ago with the
birth of photography and 100 years ago with the one of cinema.
In these phenomena the physical body progressively melts, as well as
common materials of art fated to live a time beyond humanity.
Most important, in my opinion, are the new possible ways of crossing
time and space.
Honestly, I'd regret not to be living in the era I'm living." (Fagone, 2009)

Vittorio Fagone is a recognized art critical and historian, who dedicates

his studies to the commitment between visual arts and digital media. He
endorses the novelty generated by the usage of digital technologies in
aesthetic and reveals a critical analysis of digital image as bearer of new
patterns for human perception and new approaches to art.
A digital image is generated by a series of electric impulses, translated by
the computer in a binary sequence of 0 and 1 and finally rasterized on the
screen. The result of this process is a net of pixel, or picture element,
illuminated dots on a display; all those elements prompt the digital
images (Harwood, 2008).
Impulse, numeric sequence, dot of light have nothing to do with the
materiality of paper, film, canvas, pigments of color that constitute the
analogue image. Analogue, in fact entails the embodiment in physical
support. Electronic images are instead "disembodied surfaces" (Flusser,
2002) which carry on all the values of the traditional images and include
all the features of the new media.
Manipulability, reproducibility, accessibility, portability are intrinsic
characteristic of digital images. Nowadays, we perceive them as
conventional and proper, they traced the framework of earlier analysis of
the subject.
Peter Wiebel describes digital images as synthesis of the realism of
photography and the peculiarity of painting, a new liberated form of art
that collaborates with research and technology. Besides, the author
declares the potential of digital image to "give the individual unlimited
possibilities to construct a new visual culture, a new democratic
renaissance". (Weibel, 1999).

The usage of heterogeneous forms that converge in a unique piece, is

natural in computing, this is due to the inner composition of its data: all
kinds of output are referenced to strings of binary code. As asserts critic
and curator Benjamin Weil (2002) "the realm of filter-ing, editing, and
reconstructing, so as to create new meaning" is proper of digital arts and
involves artists from different backgrounds in the 'reprocessing of
cultural fragments'.
The author presents "Wave Twisters: The Movie (VTM)" created by Syd
Garon and Eric Henry in 2001. The experimental film is a "sci-fi/kung fu
epic" that takes shape from a reflexion of the audio framework composed
for their video by DjQbert. The audio mix process consists in the research
of analogies between different sounds to create harmony. Garon and
Henry created the image sequence by using "a wide variety of techniques
(from tra-ditional cell animation to 3D live-action to photo-
collage)"(Weil, 2002) processed in the same way as QBert did with
audio. The result is a perception of homogeneity and equilibrium between
disparate and mismatched materials. The absence of continuity between
components here is replaced by the manifestation of the intrinsic
proximity given by the code from which they are generated (Munster,
2001).

'Perception' is described by neuroscience as the interaction between body

and mind resulting from external stimuli.
Human eyes don't scan the reality: it is the central part of the retina, the
fovea, with its dense number of light sensitive ganglions that transmits
impulses to the brain. The fovea covers just one degree of our visual
spectrum: therefore the brain operates a reconstruction of the reality
(Hawes, 2009).
Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio (2004) affirms that human brain is not a
tabula rasa. In fact each image generated by neuronal activity constructs
the "movie in the brain", and is affected by the previous mind
elaborations that constitute the individual emotional pattern.
Philosophers Andy Clark & David J. Chalmers (2000) examine the
external reality as extensions of minds, through a "two-way" interaction:
part of the cognitive experience is created by the control of a tool.
"Humans rely some functions to objects creating a couples system to
reduce memory load"(Clark and Chalmers, 2000), those devices are used
as 'prosthesis' of our minds.

Digital images are the result of a computing operation. The medium that
operates in this case is not merely a tool, but an apparatus that
incorporates the complex structure of technologies that 'stratify' the
interaction with human (Fuller 2005).
Mathew Fuller, a critic and activist in the Internet art collective I/O/D,
sees symbiosis between machine and arts and describes an apparatus as
"bearer of forces and drives": an active part in the creation of meaning
(Fuller, 2005).
According to research of Margaret A. Boden and Ernest A. Edmonds
(2009), there are two different approaches to technological instruments:
the first consists in considering the set of its rules as a whole, while the
other is the analysis of every steps of instructions that compose the
functional algorithm.
The rules based method does not imply the consciousness of the way in
which the instructions are decoded. Instead, by examining every step of
the algorithm, the control is more detailed. Anyhow, in both cases, the
feedback is generated by the computer and cannot be immediately
predicted: the two approaches leave to the machine a certain degree of
freedom (Boden and Edmonds, 2009).
If the machine doesn't perform as we expected we become aware of how
the digital operates: this breakdown in technical jargon is called 'glitch'.
Glitches can be defined as sudden and brief hardware malfunctions, often
due to an overloaded processor (Goriunova and Shulghin, 2008).
While experimenting the possibilities of an apparatus, we can run into
glitches: freackly trembling or weird shapes in animations, overwhelmed
software opening hundred windows, distort noises in sampled music.
These kinds of breakdowns have an intrinsic charm: they are
unpredictable manifestations of how the software works, that leave us
astonished and captured by the 'aesthetic of dysfunctional' (Goriunova
and Shulghin, 2008).
Glitches evoke the Pirandello's epiphanies: a startling event in which the
essence of reality is revealed (O'Rawe, 2005). In the case of glitches we
gain consciousness of the inner workings of the medium. At this point
there is the possibility to awaken the public, in order to divert its usual
patterns of perception: "The only thing art actually does is break the
patterns of perception.
Art should break open the categories and system we use in order to break
trough life along as straight a line as possible"(Sollfrank, in Tribe and
Jana, 2006).

In the early 1990's we were witnessing a turning point which is the

perfect ground to reveal the 'b-side' of technologies: the internet opens its
boundaries to the mass audience. In former times, the use of the protocol
for information interchange was restricted to army, academics or
government. Contemporary, new technologies were becoming relatively
more affordable for a wider public: the 'global village' portended by
McLuhan in 1962 started to take shape.
In this period, computers became a gateway to an international
community of artists: the deployment of "technologies for critical and
experimental purposes" is the peculiarity of 'Internet Art' (Tribe and Jana
2006).
Dirk Paesmans, exponent of the collective Jodi.org declares "We explore
the computer from the inside, and mirror this on the net. When a viewer
looks at our work, we are inside his computer and we honored to in
somebody's computer"(Paesmans in Tribe and Jana 2006).
The statement clarifies their first web site 'wwwwwwwww.jodi.org': a
visualization of codes and continuous links to pages that "are obviously
of a computer origin" (Goriunova and Shulghin, 2008).
Another example of their aesthetic is 'http://g33con.com/': a web page in
witch they mix pieces of software interfaces, 'glitchy' sparkling
animations, commercial logos and pieces of hardware.
With the deconstruction of the visual language of the web, the artists
address the audience to the inner mechanism of the web. They exploit the
'epiphany-effect' of glitches to show to their public the role of the Internet
as art medium besides a communication protocol (Tribe and Jana, 2006).
The Internet artist tends to explore the mechanics of the apparatus to
create an aesthetics that moves usual patterns of perception. This
tendency is pointed out in "Web Stalker". Created in 1997 by the
collective I/O/D, the application is a browser that reveals the Internet
functionality by showing 'graphically' the structure of web sites, instead
of the linear HTML processing provided by commercial browsers. The
result is an enchanting navigable diagram of links, which structure
reminds spider webs (Stallbrass, 2003). Web Stalker reveals to users the
power of the code to build different structures to give access to new ways
of being concerned with information.

Today "the Net's no longer hermetic and obscure, but it's still lightning-
fast and has few barriers to entry"(Debatty, in Sterling, 2006), the
paradigm is changed: the Internet has developed a strong commercial side
that reflects taste and expectation of a 'world wide audience'.
A millennium core-shaker for Internet users can be the "Fake project" for
example the artwork 'Nike Ground' (2003- 2004), created by the Italian
collective '0100101110101101.org'.
The Italian collective is operative since the earlier period of the Internet
art: their works were a 'remix' of art materials to express new meanings.
They carry on the poetics of deconstruction by creating, between 1997
and 1999, the online identity and artworks of "Darko Maverik".
During the celebrations dedicated to the fictive artist at Venice Biennale,
'0100101110101101.org' declared the escapade.
Trough the fictional figure of Darko Maverik the collective pull out the
anarchic side of the Internet and the untrustworthiness of its data (Greene,
2004).
Nike Ground, is a "net-assisted conceptual prank" (Sterling, 2006) in
which '0100101110101101.org', with the collaboration of Vienna's
'Public Netbase', published a fake website to announce the privatization
of Vienna Karlsplatz, renamed 'Nikeplatz'. In the other phase of the
project, they physically placed the brand's logo and gadgets in the public
square. The artists involved the audience in the public-private diatribe by
using both the installation and the website to make their fake as real as
possible (Sterling, 2006).

In addition to the commercial aspects, the Internet, in the last few years,
consented the prodigious diffusion of social networks thanks to its easy
customizability. Their growth is continuous and exponential. "Elements
of sociability have become like machines, have become part of machines
[...] New forms of alliance and transmutation between the social and what
has been abstracted- and this abstraction establishes the possibility of
mutant compositions to cross from one category to the other and for
hybrid forms to proliferate"(Fuller, 2005). In this statement the art critic,
without quoting directly the Internet and the social networks, make us
aware that the medium has become an engine of social contexts and
attitudes.
The privacy granted and filtrated by the Internet allows each user to
create its own 'Darko Maverik'.
Stefania Bonatelli, Italian photographer and video artist, is cleverly
informed about contemporary structures and strategies for the creation
and distribution of artworks. She is going thoroughly the potentiality of
social networks with her multiplatform project "Alina Rh".
The origin of the character dates back to the beginning of the millennium
with a series of 'satellite videos'. In the following years, the project
proceeds with photo shootings that are constructing Alina's style.
On 20th of August 2009, Alina, showed herself on Facebook.
This expedient allows the artist to exhibit her creation to a wide audience.
She presents her character with a hermetic and ambiguous style that
evokes a morbid but exquisite outline.
Each photo, link, reflection posted by 'Alina' receives continuous
feedbacks that supply the growth of the character. Here she is perceived
as an artist, even if she has never been declared like this.
As artist 'Alina' has already sold some of her photos to become a CD
cover.
This figure has also a 'glitchy' aspect. The artist likes to increase the
doubtfulness of the character origins. In fact, Bonatelli interacts with
'Alina''s profile by posting photos that clearly reveal her presence behind
the project. The aim is confusing who guessed the hidden game. Those
people in turn, fantasize the relation that links 'Alina' with the artist.
The purpose of the artist is to use all these fragments for the future steps
of her artwork: she is analyzing the sociological answer to Alina's online
activity, to harness it in her production strategy. 'Alina Rh' is a project
that breaks the edges between artist and audience.
As Walter Benjamin foreseen, digital images can be a mean for
emancipation of art from the ritual and a way to open it to a broader
audience and participation (Benjamin, 1979).
In the present climate we also start noticing the consequences of the
massive spread of technology: the market is becoming always more
pretentious in terms of quality.
Artist and cinematographer Terry Flaxton detected a better fruition and a
consequent deeper engagement of images with high definition quality. He
embraced the high resolution as a paradigm for his installations (Flaxton,
2009).
This demand is extended from the artwork to everyday life "We now
have, not two eyes, but as many as we can afford. We enjoy using
Computers to process the pictures and leave them around on our hard
drives or pop them up on the web for mum or aunty to have a look ·at"
(Harwood, 2008). The majority of humanity is used to manage with
digital images and children seem to have the binary code inside their
DNA.
There is also a dark side in this unceasing purchase of better technologies
that results in waste, pollution and exploitation of labor (Harwood, 2009).
The search for equilibrium between innovation and environmental
awareness is advisable for preserving the "global village" that we are
currently enjoying.
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