Vernacular of File Formats
Dutch art theorist, curator, and visual artist
Menkman specializes in glitch art and resolution theory and uses the process of exploration to create art works. The work Menkman creates embraces "accidents" and combines both analog and digital media.
Big Idea/Subject:
Failure
Major Theme:
Imperfection
Medium/Presentation: Digital Print on Dibond (Glitch Art) 30 x 40 cm
Visual Components: Line, Contrast, Light
Category:
Pop Culture
Description/Interpretation: The image is a black and white portrait, with light focused primarily on the face. There are horizontal lines across the image that interrupt the representation. The photo appears to be glitching, and looks like a poor quality of a digital image. I believe that Menkman is intentionally representing the realms and various errors that accompany digital technology. By distorting the image, the viewer automatically would believe there was an accident or unintentional failure on behalf of the technology. Using glitch art to distort the image and represent this digital world and embrace these imperfections makes these taboo areas of failure become areas of interest.
Use in Teaching:
This is an excellent example of digital work to show to a class that not only represents use of digital media, but an alternate perspective. As a project, I would have students do a digital piece using glitch art. Glitch art is a unique process that distorts images and offers many conceptual ideas. Photos tend to represent our memories, so I would have students put a photo of a significant memory in Photoshop. They would then use the glitch process to distort the image. This process also represents how our memories can distort over time. Like Menkman, their glitch images will be changed and “flawed” but their original images will still be there below the surface.
Guiding Questions:
1) Why would Menkman intentionally choose to distort this image?
2) What do you think it does for the image visually?
3) What do you think it does for the meaning of the piece?
4) How did glitching change the meaning of your photo?
5) How does distorting the memory make you feel about the image?
