MEET THE DEVELOPER
Distort Your Reality
HYPERSPEKTIV: Photo, Video, AR
Psychedelic Glitch Filters
The photo and video filters available in Hyperspektiv weren’t created to make your social media feed look cooler. Instead they were designed to be a kind of interactive art piece, one that has the potential to change how you see the world.
Some filters mimic thermal cameras or fracture images into kaleidoscopic creations. Others add haunting ripple effects, bend light, or leave you seeing double.
Unlike traditional filters, which can only be applied after the fact, Hyperspektiv’s lets you view its distortions instantly. Slide your finger across any image and you'll tweak a filter's effects in real time. Each lens is also customizable via sliders that further bring the effects to life.
According to cocreator Justin Boreta, the feel of Hyperspektiv is just as important as the resulting photo or video. “This app has always been a bit of an art project for us,” he says.
Two of the founders of Phantom Force, the three-person development team behind the app, are musicians. Boreta is part of the Glitch Mob, an electronic music group, and Dean Grenier runs a record label called Sister City. Grenier likens making Hyperspektiv to the way he collaborates on music.
“Music is our mother tongue. Making a song, an album, is the creative process we know best, so it’s what we bring to the table,” Grenier says.
The app has earned a cult following. Search the hashtag #Hyperspektiv on Instagram or Twitter and you’ll see thousands of creations. Like the works made with Lavell’s previous app, Glitch Wizard, these fall under an emerging genre known as glitch art—where mistakes are integral.
“We harness randomness,” says Boreta. “A lot of the best results in our music come from happy accidents, and the same is true of the app. We try something, and sometimes it works out as planned, and sometimes the mistake is better than the thing we were trying to make in the first place.”
For Grenier, it all comes down to the power of the iPhone in your pocket.
“If we weren’t using technology to express ourselves in some way, it would be a big wasted opportunity, and I don’t mean sharing a link or leaving a comment,” Grenier says. “The stuff you can do with Hyperspektiv wasn’t possible this easily, this deeply, this diversely before.”