Glitch Art

For this project I decided to use the app, Glitch Lab, instead of going through and data bending on my own. Actually going into the data of a photo and messing with the information seemed intimidating because I literally had no idea what I was doing. I’m the type of person who enjoys to have control over a process of something and the concept of glitch art is scary to me. Having an idea of what I want to see as the final product would make this process easier.

When I chose to use the app, I thought I would have more control. It did give me the ability to undo something when I didn’t like the result I produced. This option made me feel in more control, but every time I touched the picture I still had no idea what was going to happen.

But, as intimidating the process was, I ended up creating an image that reflects the stability of cities, but also the interchanging parts of the lives within them.

So, to start the process, I decided to edit this photo:

I took this photo back in October on my way to a Chicago Bulls Game and have loved it ever since. With this photo, I was looking to create an image that showed the city in the different way. I wanted to make the city the main focus while presenting the cars in a different way.

When I used Glitch Lab on the photo, it turned out like this:

When editing this photo at first I had no idea, what any of the features were. It took me at least 20 mins to try and experiment with each setting. In the end, I saved a few drafts to that looked cool, but once I made this it I realized this was the glitch art I wanted.

To me, this picture represents the stability of cities, but also the changes that happen within cities everyday. So within major cities people are constantly on the go. People enter and leave cities at every time of the day, but the buildings are always going to be there.

The movement of people is represented by the different sections that show different forms of transportation. It shows railroads, highways, and cars going out of the city.

I would also like to touch upon the different colors that represent the segregation within major cities. As said before, buildings will always stay put. But, those buildings create places for people to go and leave as they please. People chose to place themselves within certain buildings that put them in areas with other people similar to themselves. But, it is important to note that segregation isn’t always the result of people willing to move to certain places. Laws and regulations way back then have placed them there for certain reasons.

Overall, this piece of art represents the stability of cities, but the micro changes that happen within a city, just like making micro changes to an image makes it glitch.