CONTENTS

 
   about
   MICHAEL BETANCOURT NEWS
   movies: AESTHETICS
   movies: NEWS & REVIEWS
   movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS
   random art notes
   random how-tos
   research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES
   research: MOTION GRAPHICS
   research: VISUAL MUSIC
   theory: CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS
   theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM
   theory: GLITCH & POSTDIGITAL
   theory: working notes

 

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Glitch Theory: Art and Semiotics by Michael Betancourt
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SEARCH ARCHIVES

archives begin in 1996

  

Mongrel Materialisms

story © Michael Betancourt | published June 15, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: AESTHETICS

The connection of formalism to specific technological particulars of a specific historical moment has killed it. (Greenbergian formalism is a dead end.)




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Cognitive Dissonance = Design Fail

story © Michael Betancourt | published May 24, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: AESTHETICS

Here is an example of pure cognitive dissonance: you push the lock button up to lock and down to unlock.




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Smilies and Typography

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 17, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: AESTHETICS

Increasingly the conversion of smilies into cute little graphics by various software programs is looking juvenile, like an incorrect solution to what is clearly a problem based in punctuation. Consider the way that punctuation is essential to the creation of meaning in this singular statement:




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Discolored Computing?

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 21, 2009 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: AESTHETICS

Has your older computer equipment turned an ugly beige? (Assuming that it hasn't always been beige.) Then the Retr0Bright project might be for you. It's a way to de-discolor older plastics that have turned yellow from UV radiation. The results are impressive.






 
Thought Forms Illustrations

story © Michael Betancourt | published May 8, 2007 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: AESTHETICS

Thought Forms illustrations scanned and put on-line for your information. Besant's book may have been influential on early abstraction, especially both Kandinski and (possibly) Fischinger. Note the illustration that looks a lot like Fischinger's work.