Pioneering Digital Glitch Collaboration in 2005

Written By DAB

By Clayton Campbell and Christian Knudsen

After Abu Ghraib by Clayton Campbell

In 2005 at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California, Clayton Campbell and Christian Knudsen were some of the first West Coast artists to experiment with data bending and glitching jpg files for digital photography. It began when Campbell, using the first commercially available digital cameras, re-photographed from his computer screen the notorious images of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. The files corrupted when downloaded, appearing as static, distorted, fragmented fields of color.

The video is about how this fortunate accident inspired Campbell to invite Knudsen to collaborate with him to develop an intentional process of corrupting jpgs. They both saw glitching as a visual point of departure with unlimited possibility for their digital art-making. As Cansu Peker points out about Campbell’s work in her essay, ‘Piecing Together Glitching Thoughts of the Collective Mind’ – 

“Digital distortions that we today call glitching has been the perfect medium for Campbell to express how the human brain processes the non-stop flow of fragmented images. Glitching mirrors the unpredictability and spontaneity of the human mind. It allows for a more unconstrained expression, without specific outcomes in mind. It’s the perfect artistic response to the disjointed ideas, judgements, and narratives that the brain relentlessly spins out.”
— Cansu Peker

Watch the video here.

Untitled by Christian Knudsen

Clayton Campbell is an artist and cultural producer based in Philadelphia, U.S. His practice includes various visual productions and digital art, arts writing, stage design, curating, arts administrator, and artist residency programming.

He began working digitally in 1995 when he received the first Sony digital camera and has been developing work in the past years using applications that include experimenting with Photoshop Beta Generative Fill, Dalle E 2, early versions of Glitch, Glitchshop, Photoshop Camera, Lightroom Classic, Gigapixel AI, and Luminar AI.

Read our interview with Clayton Campbell to learn more about his art, creative process, and inspirations.

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