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Entertainment

The Internet As A Glitched Out Stream Of Consciousness

A recently launched project transforms the constant upload of media files on the web into glitch-ridden sensory overload.

If you think about all the digital media files that get uploaded to the internet each day, it’ll make your brain hurt. Considering that nearly 2 billion people are online now, even if just a small percentage of them are uploading, that’s a LOT of files. Not to mention, there’s those people who feel the need to upload every vacation photo to Facebook for all the world to see. Bottom line is, there’s no way you could process that amount of data on your own, nor would you really want to. Still, that’s the idea behind the recently launched glitch art project Infinite Glitch by Ben Baker-Smith aka Bit_Synthesis.

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He describes it as such:

Infinite Glitch is an automated system that generates an ever-changing audio/video stream from the constantly increasing mass of media files freely available on the web. Source audio and video files are ripped from a variety of popular media hosting sites, torn apart, and recombined using collage and glitch techniques to create an organic, chaotic flood of sensory input.

The internet filtered into a stream of audiovisual noise makes for a messy outcome, but that’s the point, to remind us that this is going on even though it’s impossible for us to comprehend, let alone consume it all. But in some ways, even though we’re constantly bombarded with information (and constantly being reminded of this fact), it’s reassuring to know it’s all out there, swimming in this vast digital sea, a virtual hive mind of collected human knowledge and stupidity. If you need any more reassurance, head on over to Infinite Glitch and you’ll be able to hear it—like the static on your TV, this is the static of the internet, buzzing away in a digital hinterland.