ocial blogging software like Blogger is often described as a democracy-enhancing tool.[6] However, <$BlogTitle$> exposed the myth that blogs are the medium that realized total freedom of speech, when Blogger interpreted <$BlogTitle$> as a malicious spamblog and actually blocked 3 of the blogpages Jodi created.[7] In this case, the process of making meaning became very literally a process of destruction. Moreover, it became clear at once that blog users actually have to answer to a built-in political system. This politics is based on a system governed by the desire and belief that it will be used to distribute knowledge and opinions in a specific, ‘preformatted’ way. Bloggers that do not answer to these conventions risk the possibility of being blocked or to have their blogs completely deleted.
In an interview with Tilman Baumgartel Jodi say about their work:
It is obvious that our work fights against high tech. We also battle with the computer on a graphical level. […] We explore the computer from inside, and mirror this on the net.[8]
Jodi shows that the error is socially constructed.[9] Software is more than just a programmable tool; it is a materialization of different modalities and syntaxes, a union of multiple processes and discourses, an “assemblage”, to use the term Matthew Fuller borrows from Deleuze and Guattari.[10]
<$BlogTitle <$BlogTitle$>gt; should be read as a blog that doesn’t consists of signs that have a strict meaning, but a blog that entails a sign system, through which the viewer can navigate and choose (interpret) meaning himself. This process of making meaning or reterritorializing meaning, can be described as an analogy on Barthes' writerly text.
8/13/2008
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As described in the last post, glitch artists regularly use glitch-techniques to make the spectator aware of the construction of flow. This intervention can be accomplished by for instance a tactical use of a void. I use the term void as a metaphorical embodiment of failure or lack of meaning; the point where a transmission of “meaningful” information is broken. Interruptions like these are often perceived as disastrous, threatening and uncanny. Sometimes they reveal a place where everything that can be said is eliminated or as a metaphor for the unspeakable disaster. This was for instance partially the case on 9/11, when the CNN website temporarily went down and when a black screen repeatedly interrupted the flow of the television broadcast. Kluitenberg refers to these moments in time as
the rupture of professional media codes, which signaled complete panic and disarray […], the infinity of possible alternative discourses, of other possible modes of explanation and interpretation.[1]
According to Kluitenberg, these empty spaces trigger our horror vacui, our fear for empty spaces like the void.[2]
In digital glitch art, the void is a place where structures of meaning are, often intentionally, ruined. Here, the concept of 'ruin' means a mode of working, but also simultaneously underlines the constructedness of the work. The ruins' formal fragmentation makes it clear that its meaning is open to interpretation and meaningful engagement. As a result, it is never finished, wholesome or completed; it is not static but differs from reading to reading (syntax).[3]
In this sense, the place where the code is ruined can be understood as a place where alternate readings can be created; a virtual space where an infinite amount of potential meanings can become actualized by the reader. To create meaning, the reader needs to impose constraints and limitations on other possibilities. In this sense, every act of creation is also an act of destruction (of the infinity of possibilities).[4]
The Dutch / Belgium art duo Jodi (in which Jo stands for Joan Heemskerk and di for Dirk Paesmans) is an example of a couple that makes subversive glitch art, which battles against the hegemonic flow. During 2006 and 2007 Jodi made the work <$BlogTitle$>, which is based on the social blogging software from Google (Blogger). <$BlogTitle$> looks like a place where the software is glitched; it doesn’t seem to function correctly.[5] The pages of Jodi’s blog are filled with text that either seems to belong to the backend of the software, or doesn’t mean anything at all (within conventional language systems).
Social blogging software like Blogger is often described as a democracy-enhancing tool.[6] However, <$BlogTitle$> exposed the myth that blogs are the medium that realized total freedom of speech, when Blogger interpreted <$BlogTitle$> as a malicious spamblog and actually blocked 3 of the blogpages Jodi created.[7] In this case, the process of making meaning became very literally a process of destruction. Moreover, it became clear at once that blog users actually have to answer to a built-in political system. This politics is based on a system governed by the desire and belief that it will be used to distribute knowledge and opinions in a specific, ‘preformatted’ way. Bloggers that do not answer to these conventions risk the possibility of being blocked or to have their blogs completely deleted.
In an interview with Tilman Baumgartel Jodi say about their work:
It is obvious that our work fights against high tech. We also battle with the computer on a graphical level. […] We explore the computer from inside, and mirror this on the net.[8]
Jodi shows that the error is socially constructed.[9] Software is more than just a programmable tool; it is a materialization of different modalities and syntaxes, a union of multiple processes and discourses, an “assemblage”, to use the term Matthew Fuller borrows from Deleuze and Guattari.[10]
<$BlogTitle <$BlogTitle$>gt; should be read as a blog that doesn’t consists of signs that have a strict meaning, but a blog that entails a sign system, through which the viewer can navigate and choose (interpret) meaning himself. This process of making meaning or reterritorializing meaning, can be described as an analogy on Barthes' writerly text.
ocial blogging software like Blogger is often described as a democracy-enhancing tool.[6] However, <$BlogTitle$> exposed the myth that blogs are the medium that realized total freedom of speech, when Blogger interpreted <$BlogTitle$> as a malicious spamblog and actually blocked 3 of the blogpages Jodi created.[7] In this case, the process of making meaning became very literally a process of destruction. Moreover, it became clear at once that blog users actually have to answer to a built-in political system. This politics is based on a system governed by the desire and belief that it will be used to distribute knowledge and opinions in a specific, ‘preformatted’ way. Bloggers that do not answer to these conventions risk the possibility of being blocked or to have their blogs completely deleted.
In an interview with Tilman Baumgartel Jodi say about their work:
It is obvious that our work fights against high tech. We also battle with the computer on a graphical level. […] We explore the computer from inside, and mirror this on the net.[8]
Jodi shows that the error is socially constructed.[9] Software is more than just a programmable tool; it is a materialization of different modalities and syntaxes, a union of multiple processes and discourses, an “assemblage”, to use the term Matthew Fuller borrows from Deleuze and Guattari.[10]
<$BlogTitle <$BlogTitle$>gt; should be read as a blog that doesn’t consists of signs that have a strict meaning, but a blog that entails a sign system, through which the viewer can navigate and choose (interpret) meaning himself. This process of making meaning or reterritorializing meaning, can be described as an analogy on Barthes' writerly text.
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