In Process is a series that examines the inspiration, methods, and tools used by artists to create their work. Each episode focuses on a specific piece.
Find all episodes of In Process on the Ep. 0: Index page.
In this episode, we explore Circuit Loop by Letsglitchit (pictured above).
Circuit Loop’s shifting, crystalline features are entrancing to watch. The piece is simultaneously abstract and otherworldly while maintaining an organic quality, perhaps an outcome of the hybrid analog-digital approach used to make it. More on that below.
What was the inspiration for Circuit Loop?
Much of my work inherently focuses on the beauty of brokenness. I love to break things and make something aesthetically pleasing from the results.
This is very therapeutic for me. As someone with chronic pain and mental illness, I like to think that I too can still be beautiful. I often work with ‘perfect loops’, both for aesthetic purposes but also because I believe that perfection can always be found, even in chaos.
Describe the technical process of the piece. What medium and tools were most important to creating it?
The most important technical aspect of this piece was the circuitbent gear.
Circuitbending is the creative customization of electronic circuitry. Basically, I open up cameras, webcams, digital picture frames, etc. and modify the circuitry to (hopefully) produce a pleasing result.
Circuitbending has been around for decades and is arguably the first ‘paintbrush’ introduced in the glitch art medium.
For this piece, I used a “children’s digital camera” and soldered together connections on the CMOS sensor affecting both the colour and the luminance values.
An example of live footage through the circuitbent camera.
I used the circuitbent camera to record a looping 3D animation I’d made previously in Cinema4D.
The 3D loop was created using simple polygons which I textured with a custom Filter Forge texture. I created a structure with these polygons and arranged them to create a tunnel the camera ‘flies through’.
The 3D footage, pre-circuitbending.
After processing this with the camera, I edited it in Adobe Premiere to add a hue-shifting effect.
The final piece.
How did the NFT for the piece come about? Did you make this piece specifically for teia, or was this a piece you'd already made and retrofitted for the platform?
I minted this piece on teia. I’m on other blockchains and platforms but HEN and screensaverworld seem to be where I’ve found most of my audience.
I’m not a Tezos-maxi but I have yet to find my market on ETH platforms like MakersPlace and Foundation.
I do also quite like the community-centric aspect of HEN/SSW. Most of the artists on these platforms are also collectors, and even before NFTs, my art seemed to find more appreciation from fellow artists in my field.
Where is the best place to learn more about your work?
My website has links to all my NFT platforms as well as additional artist info, exhibition history, etc.
I’d also love to give a shoutout to my fellow trans siblings in this space that are working so hard to be seen and heard.
If you follow the Trans & Non-binary Crypto Artists Twitter list you can get all of them in your feed and I promise you won’t regret it. A very talented bunch!
