What does it mean to glitch? What differentiates a glitch from say, a mistake? Are they synonymous? A glitch is a technology’s mistake, or something that is not supposed to happen but inevitably does. However, given that technology is a product of human ingenuity, the glitch becomes a human mistake. The lines between human and technological influence are blurred. A glitch is a natural occurrence; a normal abnormality.
Recalling childhood memories, I’m taken back to a strange balance between exploring acres of land and tuning into a fuzzy TV screen for shows or to play digital games: Wii, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc. Nostalgically, I often recall the feeling of freedom running through acres of kudzu-covered land. Walking down paths and passing through the garden, I’d catch a glimpse of an old chicken coop- bones half buried by grass held a sense of childhood magic. Deeper into the woods, I’d wrap tangled, brightly-colored ribbon around trees. Glimmering, sunlight would bounce off of each strand as they blew in the wind. My action was an act of endearment… an attempt to express my love to nature. I felt the need to document these juxtapositions exhibiting surreal moments in nature.My childhood tendency to intermingle the digital, world once enclosed by a stone house from 1922, with its surrounding space occurs in my artistic practice today.
My collage-inspired paintings reveal the eeriness of the digital realm that is today and its culture of surveillance in conjunction with natural landscapes. The digital realm leaves individuals with virtually no privacy. Third party data collectors and big tech companies know more about us and our inclinations more than we do ourselves. To convey this otherworldly reality, I visually create new worlds by combining archived photographs. Then, I involve digital input, visually similar to what one might recognize as a glitch or the fuzz of a TV screen. Each new world calls attention to the necessities of today’s American lifestyle: wifi access and digital connections.
By blending and editing personal archival photographs from travels and everyday life, I mesh memories. Rather than leaving each digital collage, I take up technology’s challenge to do what it can do within seconds by manipulating acrylics, oils and spray paints to convey what I have done using technology. The vibrancy and texture of oils, the flatness of acrylics, and the haziness of spray paint; these material characteristics and their interactions with mediums threaten technology’s grip. I am reluctant to succumb to its power.
Feel free to email me at adpatten@davidson.edu. Check out my Instagram page, @grateful.artist.
