"Glitch aesthetics and the subsequent praise of imperfection are not flaws to be corrected. They are the antidote to Homo Digitalis, the key to revealing the fragmentation and superficiality of a visual culture destined for emptiness and oblivion."
Van Glitch Manifesto
Experiment III | Van Glitch
The concept
What happens when the human subject becomes peripheral to their own digitally mediated experience?
In 2017, the research shifted from the limits of the archive to the pervasiveness of digital mediation. The choice was to use the most invisible and accepted tool in human history: the smartphone. Rather than a transparent device, the smartphone is a cognitive infrastructure that co-produces our perception, our memories, and our visual relationship with reality.
The philosophical enquiry
Operating under the heteronym Alexander Van Glitch, this axis investigates the "digital anthropoperiphery." By deliberately forcing mobile applications to their computational breaking points, the work exposes the corrupted nature of the pixel and the compression artifacts usually hidden by the interface. The glitch is not treated as an error to be corrected, but as a confession of the machine: it demonstrates that Homo Digitalis is not the user of technology, but the subject produced by it.
The recursive turn: dissolving autorship
The experiment reached its logical limit with the series Abstracta Chromatica. By iteratively applying the Van Glitch process to its own previous outputs, the original subject becomes irrecoverable. In this recursive loop, the device assumes autonomous aesthetic authorship, rendering the artist peripheral to his own creative process. The boundary between the human eye and algorithmic logic effectively collapses.
Empirical evidence & Resilience
The inquiry has been validated by collectors and specialists who recognized a "red thread" within this digital fragmentation:
Cultural capital: acclaimed British novelist Alexander Stuart and digital certifier Angelica Maritan acquired key works, moving the validation from digital platforms to physical literature and curatorial discourse.
Structural proof: in 2025, the primary platforms for distributing Van Glitch works (MakersPlace and KnownOrigin) dissolved. However, the works continue to exist in private collections and on the blockchain. Much like the previous experiments, this proves that the work survives the disappearance of the infrastructure it inhabited.
Collection and series
Nudes Collection
Subjecting the classic human body to smartphone computational processing, this series translates biology into interface and noise. Works like "Study of a Nude 016" split the frame into three distinct ontological zones: the warm organic upper register, a flat median colored screen where the body becomes a pure surface interface, and a lower register dissolving into digital compression artifacts.
Contemporary Icons
Focusing on globally saturated digital faces (such as Kanye West), this series applies algorithmic processing to demonstrate the device's indifference to fame, treating celebrated public figures and anonymous bodies with the same flat, democratic computation.
Contemporary Sacred
Testing whether digital fragmentation is compatible with the aesthetic stillness required of sacred imagery. In "Study for a Portrait of Pope Francis", the use of polygonal triangulation rather than voxelization unexpectedly replicates the hieratic, solemn geometry of 4th-century Byzantine mosaics.
Dark Mode
A politically charged, monochrome series depicting authoritarian leaders (Assad, Khamenei, Bolsonaro, Kim Jong Un, Putin). By stripping all color, the series applies a punitive aesthetic, using the device's interface to critique the very digital infrastructures used by power systems for control, surveillance, and manufactured consensus.
Reality Matters (Death of George Floyd)
A profound intersection between the Van Glitch theorem and historic political reality. Rather than portraying the tragic event of May 25, 2020, the artwork captures what the digital infrastructure did to the event during its viral distribution. The medium is framed not as a passive commentator, but as an active accomplice.
Abstracta Chromatica
The recursive peak of the experiment, where the Van Glitch process is iteratively applied to previous Van Glitch outputs. The original subjects become entirely irrecoverable, encrypted within a sequence of recursive computations. Here, the artist's intentions dissolve, and the computational device assumes autonomous aesthetic authorship.
I. Media Coverage & Press
Nov 2021 | "Art of the Now with Alexander Van Glitch".
Ciao Bella Podcast. Host: Erica Firpo. [30-minute monographic interview on the trajectory from Nanoart to Crypto-art].
Apr 2021 | "Criptoarte: rivoluzione o bolla speculativa?".
Il Giornale dell'Arte (Allemandi, No. 417). Author: Angelica Maritan. [Analysis identifying Van Glitch as a key figure in digital aesthetics].
Apr 2018 | "Alexander Van Glitch Profile".
The Guide Artists Magazine (Issue 14). [International print feature on the fusion of classical iconography and digital error].
II. Collections & Market Validation
Apr 2021 | ALEXANDER STUART COLLECTION.
Acclaimed British novelist Alexander Stuart acquired "Death of George Floyd" on MakersPlace. Validation confirmed via a handwritten dedication in a physical copy of his novel The War Zone (Einaudi).
Jan 2021 | SPEAKART COLLECTION.
Angelica Maritan, founder of SpeakART, officially collected and certified Van Glitch’s work, praising the "red thread" of curatorial rigor in the production.
2021 | NFT SALES RECORD.
Over 100 verifiable sales on MakersPlace and KnownOrigin, documenting consistent reception across the digital epoch.
VAN GLITCH | MONOGRAPH III
Created exclusively with smartphones using error and glitch as the primary media, this third experiment explores the digital apparatus. The work demonstrates that the digital device does not merely record reality but produces it, forcing the human subject into a peripheral position within their own mediated experience.