Glitches. We know them well; those digital ticks in our games, movies and music that can be a source of mild frustration.
But to the artist, they’re flashes of inspiration.
Static sounds, broken images – data errors are the very essences of glitch art, which explores the beauty of sudden malfunction through manipulation.
Its methods can be traced to A Colour Box (1935), a short film that involved artist Len Lye painting directly on celluloid. In 1965, video artist Nam June Paik created Magnet TV, which uses an industrial magnet to distort a television’s signal.
Things have advanced quite a bit since then. As we increasingly go digital, glitch art only continues to gain in cultural cache. There’s even a bar in Quito, Ecuador (Glitch Bar) designed around the concept.
But how do you get good glitches in your own media? Skip over the complicated methods of corrupting files - and the magnets. Glitché has mastered the art of distortion.
The app offers over 30 professional tools to simulate digital errors. Explore filters that give your photos and videos the look of old VHS, fuzzy TV signals, and more. Tweak your effects in real time while recording and editing, and for extra fun, switch to the Glitch setting and watch what happens as you shake your device.
Export your videos as GIFs for easy sharing with friends that will definitely have them doing double-takes.