On the Language of Internet Memes

an arts-based educational research dissertation in arts & visual culture education

Category: Phase I [Researcher as Student]

Literacy of the Glitch

Literacy of the Glitch is an Arts-Based Educational Research (ABER) project that examines  the glitch and the potential it presents in terms of a learning experience related to new media and practices associated with them.

It’s build entirely out of Animated GIFs and features seven glitch portraits each touching upon different, but interrelated aspects of the glitch that can serve as vehicles to explore otherwise imperceptible qualities of the digital realm. It is hoped that these type of observations may offer new insights into the underlying nature of information and design systems that must account for the potential of error. The visitor is encouraged to investigate each portrait at length as some hyperlinks are made evident while others may not be so apparent at first sight.
Annotated bibliography.

Deconstruction for Glitch as Tension

  • Glitch as Tension
  • This image was grabbed from the ‘Most Visited’ tab in a Chrome internet browser on 7.19.12:                                                                                       
  • It is a glitched rendering of the website http://www.chase.com, used on a regular basis to conduct online banking. It is unknown why it was rendered as a glitch.
  • It has been further glitched by randomly (and increasingly) inserting the phrase [GLITCH_AS_TENSION] into its alphanumeric values:

    Click to download a PDF with the intervened alphanumeric values.

    Click to download a PDF with the intervened alphanumeric values.

    Click to download a PDF with the intervened alphanumeric values.

  • An animated GIF was created to serve as the centerpiece:

    Centerpiece for the Glitch as Tension portrait.

  • A PDF file containing the intervened alphanumeric values of the images above was then converted into image files.
  • The alphanumeric values for these images were themselves intervened by substituting specific characters with the word [TENSION]:
  • The resulting images were then mixed in with the original files in order to create an animated GIF that served as the background:

    Background for the Glitch as Tension portrait

Suggested follow up question:

  • Why was an image that references a banking institution used as the centerpiece for a portrait on the Glitch as Tension?