interactive MUSIC + MEDIA by Joey Bargsten

The purpose of this project is to explore the intersection of two very contemporary, yet highly contrasting aesthetics—glitch art and virtual reality, and create an environment where they co-exist and perhaps synthesize a new sonic and visual experience.

Glitch is the unexpected and mostly uncontrollable visual and sonic consequence of technology behaving badly. We’ve encountered glitch in every new generation of technology, from LPs and VHS tape, to digital forms such as datamosh (i.e., the disruption of a digital TV signal, or artifacts that occur from faulty media compression). Now, glitch is seen as an expressive aesthetic form in its own right, with artists creating work that ‘seems’ glitched.

Virtual reality, on the other hand, is an emergent populist media which is positioned to be the next great platform for not only video games, but visual media in general. Virtuality tends to emphasize realism of the environment and attendant visuals, ever luring the viewer into believing she is inhabiting a distinct virtual world. While artists have worked with virtual reality since Char Davis and her groundbreaking work in the 1990s, the technology has now become ubiquitous, with a number of high-end platforms (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Meta, and Microsoft Hololens) poised as videogame platforms.