Glitch Art in Theory and Practice

4Critical Engagements with Failure

Glitch may serve as an interruption of the aura of the digital’s illusion of perfection, at the same time, it is countered by the readily reversible nature of the semiotic: in place of destructive noise, the glitch is more often simply a transient limitation that is quickly elided from consciousness following the aura of the digital: non-functional (broken) technology is not engaged critically; it is trashed and replaced.

Glitch becomes political when it creates a stoppage that creates an awareness of that work as a material product, not simply an interruption of functional continuity in the media work, this “awareness” depends on the semiotic role of the glitch making the fragmentary nature of technological ...