Error and its potential

In his writing, Mark Nunes gives insight to the study of glitch art by first explaining the history and how social interactions and communication nowadays depend on the efficiency, accuracy and predictability of the functioning of networks, in other words, the “Logic of Max Performance”.  He goes on to describe that an error in a system is considered a failure within that system and that logic demands for error to be captured or nullified, limiting a society to be inevitably controlled. Within his discourse, though, he makes sure to highlight that “error” will always slip through. Fortunately, as Nunes points out, it makes way for an escape from the predictable and, in that way, makes room for a creative route – essentially what glitch art is all about. 

He quotes many authors, but of the most prominent in his essay, he includes James Beniger. Beniger analyzes historical production of systems – translating into todays societies at new monumental levels. Another author is Wiener, who makes the connection between purpose and control, having to do with the functioning of systems, their errors and the importance of feedback. Others like Delueze and Friedrich also appear, who see error as a failure in a good sense and who no longer see error as something that needs to be corrected, respectively. Pierce gives his insight by basically saying that errors are deviations from an answer or the standard and, in this way, expands our knowledge of this answer. Therefore, error shouldn’t be corrected.