For this task, I decided to appropriate the work of contemporary collage artist Jesse Draxler. I was drawn to his abstraction of the human form and obscuring of the face, and was keen to develop this in some way. His monochromatic black and white colour scheme gives his work a sharp, graphic quality, due to the clean lines and high contrast. I thought this would be a good starting point from which I could develop some work.

I was inspired to consider methods of distortion and abstraction and how I could ‘edit’ his work in a way that would be relevant to my practice. Having previously discussed my use of manual image manipulation using the photocopier, I was keen to develop this in another experimental and playful way, using ‘Glitch Art’, incorporating the element of chance and unpredictability.

Using the software Notepad++ I was able to edit the code of the original JPEG image and slowly alter the makeup of the image. With limited experience in coding and no knowledge of the coding language used, I did not know which bits of the code I was changing, a very playful and unpredictable process.

The attached images demonstrate the range of outcomes from this experimental process. The results included discolouration, pixilation, the image shifting to the right or left and missing pixels or chunks of the image. Image 1 was my first attempt at ‘glitching’ the image and I did not edit the code significantly. Similarly the code for Image 3 has not been massively altered, yet the image itself differs significantly from Draxler’s original collage.

Image 1

Image 3

Images 6 and 7 however were significantly altered and I was careful to ensure the files were not corrupted from too much of the code being damaged.

Each image had multiple iterations as, at each step, the work needed to be saved as a different file, thereby documenting the process and development of the work as well. The below images are examples of the more heavily edited works, both the eighth iterations of their respective developmental processes. Having had more practice with this technique, I had a greater degree of control over the results, the compositions and effects somewhat more intentional.

Image 6 (8)

Image 7 (8)

I found this process transformed the images – some more successfully than others – and it worked well with both the colourful and monochromatic images in entirely different ways. This process raises questions about authorship and authenticity – to what extent does altering another artist’s work make it your own? Does this only happen if the work no longer bears resemblance to the original? As a collage artist, Draxler himself appropriates imagery and material in order to make work and I thought it apt to take this a step further by adding to it myself and making it my own.