Glitch Art— Memphis, TN
I created a series of four separate Glitch Art pieces. Each are variants of photos I took (save for the photo of me in the record shop which was taken by a friend) while on my Alternative Break Immersion to Memphis, TN earlier this month. I decided to use photos from my trip in this assignment to highlight the overall impermanence of short term trips. You go for a week or so, enjoy your surroundings, and then leave and return back to the norm of everyday life. The memories start to fade almost immediately. Years later, you may remember a few events here and there, but it is nothing like it was when you were there. Each glitch piece is very broken up and compartmentalized, which, in a sense, mimics our memories. I created a bit of black space in each of my pieces to represent how certain parts of our memories fall away, never to be retrieved again. Furthermore, I distorted the images by flipping them around to signify our tendency to mis-remember things after time passes. When we try to remember our experiences, we may identify a few pieces here and there, but it is by no means a complete replication of the past. Though each of my Glitch pieces are distorted, it is still pretty clear what they are of, in the same way we remember the important things about our past experiences, but lose the intricacies and specifics.
I also incorporated the use of color to make the photos more engaging. Looking back at the pictures I took in Memphis, they are nothing like the real deal. I remember the stain-glass window at the church we visited as vibrant and breathtaking. I remember the Lorraine Motel sign at the Civil Rights Museum (location of MLK Jr.’s assassination) as chilling and heartbreaking. I remember the record shop as calming yet exciting. Photo representations of places and moments always fall short of capturing the emotions. One of my favorite Maya Angelou quotes touches on the importance of emotions in memories, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Applying this quotation to the context of images, I can already feel my memory of how the church we visited looked, or how the record shop was arranged. But when I think about these places, I immediately am reminded of the way they made me feel. Through my Glitch pieces, I hoped to capture this in a way that regular photos can’t. It really isn’t essential for me to remember the specific details, but I never want to forget the way I felt. The faded blue-tone colors in the Lorraine Hotel piece capture the sadness and reflectiveness of my experience at the Memphis Civil Rights Museum. The varied dark tones in the record shop piece capture the quiet yet invigorating environment.
