how to glitch?

What you need

A TV/screen/projector. I love CRT TVs, especially Sony Trinitron. However, it is a good (and cheap!) idea to start with a small LCD screen. The results vary depending on the kind on screen you will use. There’s not any “best” option, because all options have their qualities and identities! Hopefully, your TV/screen/projector will have a Video Input. It is very common – and handy – the “yellow cable input”, called AV/RCA/COMPOSITE – they are all synonyms! – but you can also find VGA, S-VIDEO, HDMI, SCART connections. Converters are very cheap and easy to find, so it is not an issue if, for example, your Video Glitch Device has a COMPOSITE Output and your TV has only a S-VIDEO and SCART input. You will only need to find a COMPOSITE>S-VIDEO or COMPOSITE>SCART converter!

A TIME BASE CORRECTOR, or T.B.C. Video Glitch must be tamed in order to be seen. CRT TVs are generally able to deal with most of the glitch signals, but if you are not using a CRT TV, you absolutely need a Time Base Corrector. T.B.C.s come in two forms: 1) integrated in a video mixer (Panasonic WJ-AVE and MX series, Videonics MC series, SIMA SFX series, Roland Edirol V series…) or 2) as stand-alone device (FOR-A makes great T.B.C.!). I generally advice to find a nice video mixer because they are usually cheaper than stand-alone devices, because they can be used for other purposes (video mixing, video feedback…), and because they can be modded! Yovozol made a fantastic video on Time Base Correctors, don’t miss it!

CABLES, CONVERTS, SPLITTERS. Depending on your video gears, and of the input outputs they have, you will need cables, and probably, converters. It is very useful to have one or more PAL to NTSC and NTSC to PAL converter (if you are in the US or Japan, it is likely that your devices will be NTSC, while if you are in Europe, Australia, Middle East, and parts of Asia they will be PAL).

VIDEO SOURCES. There are a lot of options: VHS/DVD players, camcorders, CCTV cameras, or your computer (using a HDMI to AV/COMPOSITE – or S-VIDEO, or VGA – converter). My advice is to get one of these cheap converter to interface your computer with your video glitch gears and to find a cheap camcorder or CCTV camera to unlock the joys of video feedback (by simply by pointing the camcorder/CCTV to the TV/Screen).

ONE OR MORE VIDEO GLITCH DEVICES. Often, video glitch devices are old, obscure analog video enhancers, processors, mixers, converters, or titlers that are circuit bent to unlock their glitch potentialities. There is not much literature about these devices or how to make them, but this means that there is a huge space for experimentation. The capacities of most video devices are still unexplored, and each device has its own peculiar glitch effects, its character. DISCLAIMER!!! The knobs and CV controls do not work exactly as you could expect. Video glitch device are esoteric. In some cases, the knobs work only in a particular range – but their behavior will change if other knobs or switches are activated! In other cases, some knobs or switches will not work or will give as a result a black screen. Yet, if other knobs or switches are in a certain position, they will start to work. Sometimes, one or more parameter, if set in a certain particular position, will change the behavior of all the others controls! Many combinations lead to dead paths, but some other lead to unknown places…

HOW to do

There is not a default way to make video glitch. The range of routing options increases with the number of video devices you have, and the creation of new routing settings is – in my view – an integral part of the creative process of video art. However, there are some “classical” video glitch routing settings that it can be useful to known and master:

GLITCH VIDEO SIGNALS:

VIDEO SOURCE -> VIDEO GLITCH DEVICE -> CRT TV

VIDEO SOURCE -> VIDEO GLITCH DEVICE -> TIME BASE CORRECTOR -> LED TV/SCREEN/PROJECTOR/

CAMERA FEEDBACK:

(POINT THE CAMCORDER/CCTV TO THE CRT TV) CAMCORDER/CCTV -> VIDEO GLITCH DEVICE -> CRT TV

(POINT THE CAMCORDER/CCTV TO THE LED TV/SCREEN/WALL THAT YOU USE WITH THE PROJECTOR) CAMCORDER/CCTV -> VIDEO GLITCH DEVICE -> YOUR TIME BASE CORRECTOR -> LED TV/SCREEN/PROJECTOR

NO-INPUT ANALOG VIDEO FEEDBACK:

This technique requires a video mixer and/or a dedicated device. My friend and circuit bending legend Gleix has built awesome gears based on this approach, give them a look!