Media Art Gallery to Explore Error with ‘GlitchKraft’

The newest exhibit at Emerson’s Media Art Gallery will be full of mistakes.

GlitchKraft: Allison Tanenhaus and Friends, will open Wednesday, September 18 and runs through Sunday, October 6. It is the first exhibition curated by Emerson’s new Foster Chair of Art Theory and Practice and Curator-in-Residence Leonie Bradbury.

Glitch art involves interfering with or intentionally altering digital image files for aesthetic purposes. The exhibition will feature images digitally projected onto gallery walls, windows and monitors.

“GlitchKraft is … an ode to the interrupted image,”  said Bradbury, who joined Emerson this summer, following the death last year of Media Art Gallery founder and former Foster Chair Joseph D. Ketner II.

“Images that are usually limited to be viewed on a screen – mobile or otherwise – here are projected larger than life onto every surface of the gallery to create a technicolor ‘glitch-world’ that will surround visitors and allow them to be fully immersed in light and sound,” she said.

For the exhibit, artist Allison Tanenhaus collaborated with color-bending, mind-scrambling, new media friends and local artists, including Alex Kittle, Ben K. Foley, Property Materials, Lauren Klotzman, and stickipictures. Together, they embrace electronic error, circumvent computational constraint, and overstimulate technologically. The result is an immersive, ephemeral glitchscape made to overload the senses.

Tanenhaus is a Boston-based digital glitch artist who specialized in abstract geometries, vibrant color fields, optical perspectives, playful patterns, and unexpected dimensional qualities. Her source material consists of original photographs and previous glitch works that she alters via smartphone.

A graduate of Harvard University and Emerson’s Copy Editing Professional Certificate Program, Tanenhaus is founder of street art-inspired apparel company Slogans for Nothing. Her work has appeared throughout the U.S.; recently, she’s had work shown in The Alternative Gallery in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Cover These Walls in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Earlier this year, she was awarded a Fellowship in Visual Art from the Somerville (Massachusetts) Arts Council.

Emerson’s Media Art Gallery, 25 Avery Street, Boston, is open Wednesday through Sunday, 12:00-7:00 pm. All exhibits and programming is free and open to the public.

Events include:

Thursday, September 19, 5:00-7:00 pm – Opening Reception. Featuring live electronic music by DJ Limbc and live video mixing by local digital media artists DebStep and J. Bagist. DebStep and J. Bagist run Property Materials, a local glitch art magazine and materials collaborative that will celebrate the release of its most recent issue showcasing Tanenhaus’s work.

Thursday, September 26, 5:00-7:00 pm – Artist Talk, featuring Tanenhaus, Foley, and Klotzman, and a video art performance, MEMORY RECOVERY ::\\AFTERDARK REVISITED by Klotzman.

Saturday, September 28, 2:00-4:00 pm – Glitch Workshop with Tanenhaus. One-on-one guidance on iPads (and BYO devices), with preloaded images and apps.

Thursday, October 3, 5:30-6:30 pm — Artist Talk with illustrator, art historian, and film curator Alex Kittle. Since 2018, Kittle has been devoted to women filmmakers, creating portraits and zine biographies as a way to share their stories and works in an accessible way. She also co-hosts a monthly screening series and discussion group, Strictly Brohibited, which highlights women-made films in a welcoming community for women and non-binary film fans. Visit @panandscan and @strictlybrohibited.

Saturday, October 5, 5:00-7:00 pm – Closing Reception. Featuring live electronic music by Doug Bielmeier, Robin Amos and Blaik Ripton, and live video art by Christopher Konopka. A slideshow viewing party includes glitch art made by visitors at the workshop, artists featured in the exhibit, and artists in the latest issue of the Property Materials zine.