CMS 480: Glitches and Errors in Visual Media
New, cutting edge media often promise perfection. HDTV was supposed to remove the fuzz and and interference of analog broadcast television; digital cinema was supposed to provide "lossless" images that never scratched or wore out. Machine vision is supposed to create cars that never crash and ensure the cops never catch the wrong man.
But all around us, we see failure. Zoom freezes. Hard drives crash. Supply chains collapse. Bots like Glitch TV Bot and Neural Net Guesses Memesput the failures of supposedly advanced technologies on display for our amuseument. Trends like deep fried memes and m̶e̵s̸s̶e̶d̷ ̵u̸p̴ ̷g̷l̴i̶t̴c̸h̶ ̶f̴o̸n̴t̵s̶ aestheticize the built-in failures of digital technologies, drawing on decades of work by glitch artists. Tech giants laud "disruption" as the ultimate creative act, while collectors celebrate the fuzzy imperfections of obsolete media like VHS and vinyl.
This class investigates moments of failure and accident in visual media culture. We will discuss glitches, misprints, the minor error, the spectacular failure, the moment of "cringe," knockoffs, noise, delays, and complete breakdowns. After years of studying how film and media work, this class will ask you to think about moments when media fails to work. Why do we strive for perfection, and why are we fascinated by imperfection? Why, in this moment, are artists and filmmakers attracted to noisy, glitchy images and technologies? And what can such failures teach us that the "perfect" image cannot?
This course will be a discussion-based seminar and requires students participate in biweekly "Show and Tell" sessions.