Glitch: An Epistemology of Breaking New Media Rules

ke$hav prasad

4/17/2015

New Media Theory

Page 1 of 12

1. Introduction
Digital artist and theorist Rosa Menkman has devoted her body of work to theorizing the
glitch, which she defines as a:
break from an expected or conventional flow of information or meaning within (digital)
communication systemsA glitch occurs on the occasion where there is an absence of
(expected) functionality, whether understood in a technical or social sense. Therefore, a
glitch, as I see it, is not always strictly a result of a technical malfunction (Menkman 9).
Menkmans contention provokes the question of whether it is possible for a rupture in
digital information exchange to encroach upon material reality. New media theorists tend to
relegate digital media to the dimension of abstract symbols. Media are effectors of social reality,
rather than fundamental constituents of reality itself. Jean Baudrillard, for example, argues media
function on the level of social processes that far exceed material production (Baudrillard 207).
Moreover, the hegemonic classical model of communication subtly influencing media practices
obviates the possibility for reciprocal communication. The symbolic has slipped from the order
of the very production of meaning to that of its reproduction, which is always the order of power
(Baudrillard 217). Banishing digital symbols from the plane of material reality relies on an
assumption that material forces of production, or technology, are merely instrumental, and that
digital symbols are an abstract consequence of their function. Martin Heidegger, however, in his
investigation of technologys essential relationship to society, argues technology is integral to
constructing a social epistemology, or a social theory of knowledge and system of justified
beliefs (Heidegger 320). Using Rosa Menkmans Vernacular of File Formats as a case study, I

Page 2 of 12

put Heideggers Question Concerning Technology in dialogue with Baudrillards Requiem for
the Media with the intent of defining a glitch as a new media practice which deconstructs
technological communication theory by extending the logic of its material process beyond its
own physical and symbolic ends.
2. Communication: A Linear Epistemology
Baudrillard argues all media practice implicitly references a classical model of
communication formulated by Roman Jakobsen: Transmitter-Message-Reciever - in other words,
sender-message-recipient (Baudrillard 218-219). Baudrillard critiques the ideological dimensions
of the communication model:
This structure is given as objective and scientific, since it follows the methodological
rule of decomposing its object into simple elementsThis "scientific" construction is
rooted in a simulation model of communication. It excludes, from its inception, the
reciprocity and antagonism of interlocutors, and the ambivalence of their exchangethe
forced rationality and terrorism of separation regulate it (Baudrillard 219-221).
The ideology of hegemony is implicit to this model due to the lack of reciprocity. The
scientific model of communication governs all contexts of symbolic exchange, reducing them to
a linear power dynamic subordinating receiver to transmitter, and therefore propagating media as
a mechanism of social control. This model maintains a dominant influence on media practice due
to a social acceptance of scientific rationality.
Heidegger argues modern technology and modern scientific rationality, two coproductive social constructs, are emblematic of contemporary epistemology. Their essence
becomes clearer with etymological evidence. Techn, the word root of technology, originally
Page 3 of 12

denotes a desire to uncover meaning. Therefore, technology is not only an instrument, but at its
essence, an uncovering of social meaning (Heidegger 319-323). Modern technology and modern
science are distinct in their calculative nature, which, rather than uncovering and adding to a
social theory of knowledge, enframe reality to specific utility-based functions and ignoring all
other potential meaning that might be associated. For example, modern science reduces trees to a
calculated, known source of raw material for consumption purposes, such as firewood
(Heidegger 326-328).
Menkmans theory of glitch aesthetics also stems from a close analysis of the
technological origins of the electronic communication. Shannons mathematical model of
communication theorizes information exchange in a context-free environment. By ignoring the
possibility of social or cultural contexts, this model provides a model for information exchange
between machines (Menkman 12). An electronic transmission is the basic, context-free unit of
information exchanged between machines. The machines transmitter encodes information,
sending the message through a channel to a receiver which decodes the message. The process of
encoding and decoding information are not entirely context-free, however, because machines too
must isolate the desired unit of electronic information from background electronic information.
This background electronic information is called noise. Menkman notes noise, unlike the social
or cultural contexts excluded by Shannons model, is fundamentally material because the
machines physical process of electronic transmission creates noise (Menkman 12-13). Moreover,
machine communication depends on noise in order to define distinct units of electronic
information, so while a theory of machine communication may remove the context of human

Page 4 of 12

language, it cannot remove the context of machine language. Even a technological theory of
information with a basis in modern science cannot deny imprecision (Menkman 14).
Hence, the linear, scientific model of communication is not merely, as Baudrillard argues,
an ideological manipulation of material productive forces. The fundamentally linear
epistemology of technology is consistent with both the classical model of communication and the
social relations which it enacts. A technological epistemology predetermines social relationships
on the level of justified belief. The application of mathematical exactness to communication
theory seeks to apply a dominant, singular meaning to information which subordinates all social
meaning to an electronic transmission. The model cannot, however, escape the context its own
material processes produce, therefore leaving a physical artifact of imprecision for critique. A
glitch is a moment of technological malfunction. It not only ruptures the dimension of symbolic
communication through ambivalence, but also rejects the modern technological theory of
knowledge by highlighting the imprecision intrinsic to a technological process.
3. Compression: A Short-Circuited Epistemology
According to Baudrillard, the classical communication is fundamentally contradictory,
fabricating non-communication(Baudrillard 205). Assuming communication must involve an
exchange, or a reciprocal space of speech and response (Baudrillard 205), the linear model of
transmitter-receiver obviates the possibility for a reciprocity of speech. Baudrillard uses the May
68 social revolution in France to demonstrate the powerlessness of social resistance absent the
opportunity for reciprocity of speech. During the May 68 revolution, rioters took to the streets,
performing public critiques of the government. The revolution was unsuccessful because most
residents of France watched the demonstrations on television rather than seeing them live.

Page 5 of 12

Television broadcasts reduced images of the riots to a series of sound bytes which normalized
political distress into a mundane piece of news (217-218). Therefore, a system which does not
allow a reciprocal exchange subordinates one social group to the power of another.
Heideggers analysis of modern technology also concludes that modern technological
thinking creates a linear epistemology which reduces knowledge to a confining interpretation of
social reality. The social danger of modern technological thinking lies in the logical extension of
enframing. Heidegger contends enframing an object with confined meaning reduces it from an
object to a standing-reserve (Heidegger 320). An object which has become standing-reserve is
only used for the purposes included in its enframing, or limited definition (Heidegger 322).
Moreover, a society which enframes reality to compartmentalized units of standing-reserve
ultimately enframes itself into standing-reserve. Modern technological thought constantly
increases the rate at which standing-reserve is used and discarded. For example, a society which
enframes a tree as a source of fuel for fire, and nothing else, not only fails to interact with trees
any other way, but also enframes people within the society as loggers. The logical endpoint of
using tree as a fuel is complete deforestation, and the obsolescence of loggers in the work force
(Heidegger 323).
Menkmans critical and aesthetic exploration of digital compression illustrates
Heideggers philosophy in the contemporary digital context. Compression is a modern strategy of
technological communication which reorganizes electronic transmissions using a compression
algorithm, or rubric for the transmissions intended purpose, to include only the units of
electronic information which best serve the transmissions intended purpose, discarding all other
units of information (Menkman 15). Compressions essential function is a confining of meaning.
Page 6 of 12

A compression algorithm predetermines a specific purpose for electronic information, and the
compression process eradicates any meaning which does not fit this purpose. Moreover,
Menkman notes a social trend towards efficient consumption of media, which results in an
increased demand for compressed electronic transmissions (Menkman 15). This industrial shift
has precipitated hundreds of compression algorithms, compartmentalizing electronic
transmissions to highly specified and highly limited purposes, and consequently increasing a
need for software engineers who specialize in the use of a small number of compression
techniques (Menkman 16).
Menkman notes, however, that as a unit of electronic information becomes increasingly
compressed, the machines ability to distinguish between the information and its electronic
context decreases. The transmissions noise, and the material artifact of the machines
imperfection become more apparent (Menkman 16). Menkmans photograph catalog, The
Vernacular of File Formats, demonstrates that the unanticipated noise artifacts created by the
technological process of compression open up possibilities for creative re-arrangements of
electronic information (Menkman 16-21). Menkman begins her catalog with an uncompressed
transmission of electronic information: a digital image of herself. Menkman then creates new
electronic transmissions which apply one compression algorithm to a transmission which does
not fit the specific purpose the algorithm demands. The resulting digital images create abstract
color fields rather than the intended representation of Menkmans face. These images are glitch
moments. The digital glitch functions on two levels: first, by exposing the imperfection of a
technological process, and second by revealing the rubric of the compression algorithm, the

Page 7 of 12

glitch questions whether the compression algorithm is truly the only purpose for the electronic
transmission.
Menkmans aestheticization of the compression glitch introduces reciprocity to the
communication model Baudrillard critiques as linear. The classical model of communication
asserts itself by feigning a reciprocal interaction between transmitter and receiver while actually
imposing a rigid hierarchy of communication which privileges the transmitter. Menkmans
insistence on applying unintended compression algorithms to electronic transmissions implicitly
critiques the privileged position of the transmitter by visualizing the dominating influence of the
transmitters speech on the message. The model also asserts its own validity with scientific
rationality. Both transmitter and receiver occupy a context-free role with a confined, specific
purpose. The scientific set of justified beliefs which subtly influence communication exchange
reduce two reciprocal social agents into standing-reserves: transmitter and receiver. A
compression glitch is an exposure of noise, a physical artifact of imperfection created by the
material processes of technological communication. Menkman extends the logic of the
compression algorithms physical process of encoding electronic information for efficient
communication, instead creating a transmission without any specific purpose, fundamentally
ambivalent by the very process of its creation. Menkman does not replace or reverse the
electronic transmission, she simply responds by smashing the code (Baudrillard 222).

4. Feedback: A Recursive Epistemology

Heidegger believes technological thought endangers society if it is presumed that
technology is essentially instrumental in nature. Nevertheless, enframing and standing-reserve,

Page 8 of 12

can and should be banished from the social function of technology. The solution lies in
Heideggers concluding claim: the essence of technology lies in revealing (Heidegger 337). In
other words, technology is a set of practices which constitute an ongoing attempt to develop a
theory of knowledge.
Although a linear model dominated technological communication theory, a second
model, cybernetic feedback, has also influenced the discipline (Menkman 26). Although
feedback also begins with the ideal of a context-free unit of electronic information, it attempts to
account for noise with a mechanism which compares the initial information at the machines
input with the information prepared for transmission at the machines output. If the units of
electronic information are different from each other upon comparison, the machine draws more
noise into the transmission. Feedback, rather than linear, is a recursive process in a perpetual
state of information exchange (Menkman 26).
The feedback model is much closer to the technological thought Heidegger advocates. By
its very nature, feedback recognizes the imprecision of information exchange. Moreover,
feedback exemplifies Heideggers principal that technology must essentially reveal meaning.
Recursion does not assign knowledge, but rather perpetually redefines with a comparison to a
broader context of noise, and consequently, a broader possibility of meanings. Feedback may
still, however, be conceptualized as an instrument of gathering information, perhaps an even
more efficient instrument than the linear model. Electronic communication models, regardless of
their mechanism, are easily susceptible to dangerous technological thinking because they have
been designed with modern science. Baudrillards proposal for strategic resistance to the classical
communication model is an embrace of ambiguity. Perhaps his solution applies here as well.

Page 9 of 12

Heideggers concluding idea in his investigation of technology is an etymological linkage

between techn, the technological essence of revealing, and poisis, the artistic practice of
forming ambivalent theories of knowledge (Heidegger 340). Menkmans work, which explicitly
references and critiques the classical model of communication, is successful where other media
fall into a fixed form of knowledge. A glitch is a rupture in the electronic functioning of an
information transmission. Although the glitch is an electronic transmission, it is characteristically
physical, conscious of the material existence of electronic transmissions. A glitch is both an
incursion of the physical artifact noise onto digital media, and an incursion of digital media
sensibilities onto the physical processes of noise and electronic transmission. The sensibility of
the glitch aesthetic fundamentally resembles a recursive model of communication because it
challenges the ambiguous relationship between disciplines which seem incoherent. A theory of
glitch is not a separation of physical processes and social functions, but rather a strategic reenvisioning of how to relate the two in a new media context.
5. Conclusion
Menkmans final statement about the glitch is a forewarning. Although the glitch
aesthetic is traditionally associated with media criticism, artistic interpretations of quantitative
models, or materiality versus abstraction, the cultural presence of a glitch cannot remain
permanently remain unstable - an aesthetic can always be reappropriated as a fad (Menkman 71).
A common example is an image effect in Adobe Software such as Photoshop or AfterEffects,
which not only commodifies the glitch into popular form, but fundamentally reverses the critical
instability of the glitch by turning it into an intentional, linear electronic transmission. Hence,
Menkman proscribes a strategic position similar to that of Heidegger and Baudrillard. The glitch
aesthetic is a critical practice of rejection of convention, mechanical utility, and known form
Page 10 of 12

(Menkman 71). Hence, a strategy of glitch demands agnosticism and ambivalence. Agnosticism
of medium, aesthetic, purpose. Ambivalence of meaning, function.

Page 11 of 12

Works Cited

Baudrillard, Jean. "Requiem for the Media." For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign.
St. Louis, MO.: Telos, 1981. 205-30. Print.
Heidegger, Martin. "The Question Concerning Technology." Basic Writings: Martin Heindegger.
Ed. Martin Heidegger and David Farrell. Krell. London: Routledge, 2010. 307-43. Print.
Menkman, Rosa. The Glitch Moment(um). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011.
Print.

Page 12 of 12