Artist Statement

The Glitch Textiles project was started in 2011 with the goal of exploring the intersections of textiles and digital art. The idea was simple: Transcode glitches in the cold, hard logic of digital circuits into soft, warm textiles. The result is art that bridges the digital /virtual divide and reconnects the histories of woven image making and computer technologies.

Following a successful funding campaign on Kickstarter, Glitch Textiles has grown to include a range of woven and knit wall hangings and blankets whose patterns are generated using images taken with short circuited cameras and other unorthodox digital techniques, including data visualization aided by the use of tools developed for digital forensics.

These blankets are layered with irony: a digital photographic image, made with an intentionally broken (rewired) camera, is mechanically woven or knit into a photoblanket. In this project, a keepsake for cherishing one’s memories becomes a platform for fashioning corrupted memory, the cold logic of digital systems into soft, warm blankets.

DCP Series designs are sourced from intentionally short circuited digital cameras. DA series designs are created using the process of down-sampling and color-quantization applied to gradients. YOTG Series designs are sourced from Year of the Glitch, a yearlong glitch-a-day project by Phillip Stearns.

Images and words courtesy of Phillip Stearns