Micro Project 6 – Glitch Aberrations

For this micro project, I decided to use a photo of a stock picture perfect family. I chose one with a watermark on purpose as it enhances the unbelievable / unrealistic / fake / silly quality of the concept of a perfect family. The family composition reflects my real family: parents and 3 daughters.

The series of glitches debunks the idea of a perfect family, because no one is perfect, and no family is perfect. Each letter, symbol, or character that is moved around in the code represents the many events that happen, the actions taken, and the words exchanged in a family. While many are of a positive quality, many are also of a negative quality. With every negativity exchanged, the perfect family becomes less perfect.

Eventually, this idea of a perfect family turns into something that is completely different, and that’s okay, because every family is unique, just like how the picture is now unique after its glitches.

 

BREAKING IT DOWN:

At first, I cut individual letters from different parts of the code and pasted them together in one space creating the text “PERFECT FAMILY”.

It created an interesting composition where the father’s eyes got edited out/displaced. The colours also became more saturated and neon-like, almost saccharine, amplifying the happy mood from the original picture into something psychedelic. Can any family be this perfect?

Then I added “DOESN’T EXIST”, and the image glitches into a warped version that seems to destroy the idea of the perfect family.

Next, I added “OR DOES IT?” at another section of the code.

At this point the image glitches into a clearer version of the family, but just in a different colour, and the lines became finer and more even. This improves the possibility of the existence of a perfect family.

Then I added the different components of a family: daughter, sister, mom and dad. I tried various ways of adding letters to the code, whose meaning is open to interpretation.

I didn’t include any son or brother because I do not have a living brother.

As you can see, the image does not warp too much with these changes.

Other than that, I also tried randomly copying a part of a code and copy-pasting it multiple times to fill the window with that particular part of code.

I also constructed a word with another phrase through composition.

Lastly, I kept on cutting and pasting different parts of the code to other parts, and/or copy-pasting code multiple times to distort the image until I was happy with it, until the image can barely bee recognised.

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Clarita Saslim

I love curry and I dream of mala in my sleep.

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