Video Essays Response
The video instructor begins to explain the difference between glitch and error. A glitch does not necessarily mean there is an error in the program. A glitch is an unexpected action in a program. Glitch art is when someone intentionally creates glitches in an image. Data bending is opening a media file in an application that does not normally handle those types of media files. The instructor implores the viewer to make glitching an everyday practice. His suggestion is not with intentions of just breaking apps or making glitch art each day, but instead to counteract the complacency we often feel when using media apps made for a simple consumer. Digital Literacy is an important concept throughout many of the videos, which is something that still confuses me a bit. I believe it relates to the underlying biases that many internet programs have. For example, some internet programs are biased towards English language speakers. Or, how PDF is similar to WWF (World Wildlife Fund), as they act the exact same way except for the fact that WWF does not allow you to print. The original copyright laws put a 14 year limit on copyright with the product being put into the public domain after that. However the law has been changed to last the entire lifetime of the author plus 70 years following. This is in order to help protect the corporations who have ownership in certain media.
This response begins to get close to an opinionated take-away, but lingers a bit too long on synopsis. Good questions about digital literacy—becoming more attuned to the languages, parameters, and rules of the various digital media platforms and modes of communication with which we engage each day. The practice of glitch empowers us to question these rules and insert ourselves as active participants in the use of digital media as modes of communication, as opposed to being relegated to passive consumers. Rather than take Youtube's copyright policies at face value, for instance, Briz is encouraging us to analyze the capital interest that the private company holds in dictating copyright on its own private system. These "rules" are not eternal, nor are they even particularly relevant to the age-old conversation about sharing ideas as a culture, yet we too often defer to the loudest voices in the room, so to speak.
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