Glitch Studies Manifesto (1)

1. The dominant, continuing search for a noiseless channel has been, and will always be no more than a regrettable, ill-fated dogma. Even though the constant search for complete transparency brings new, ‘better’ media, every one of these new and improved techniques will always have their own fingerprints of imperfection. In the beginning there was only noise. Then we moved from the grain of celluloid to the magnetic distortion and scanning lines of the cathode ray tube. We wandered the planes of phosphor burn-in, rubbed away our dead pixels and eventually watched performance art created by cracking LCD screens. The elitist discourse of the upgrade is a dogma widely pursued by the naive victims of a persistent upgrade culture. The consumer only has to dial #1-800 to stay on top of the technological curve, the waves of euphoria and disappointment. It has become normal that in the future we will pay less for a device that can do more. We have to realize that improving is nothing more then a proprietary protocol, a deluded consumer myth about progression towards a holy grail of perfection.