Introducing the third of our ten WORLDART10 competition winners, Aluta Null!

Aluta Null is a digital artist and game developer from Johannesburg who graduated from Wits University with an Honors Degree in Digital Arts, majoring in Game Development.

Their work spans a variety of digital mediums including extended reality and video games. Aluta commonly goes by Aluta’s Theory on social media, as a nod to the questions, thoughts, and observations they tend to litter their digital surroundings with. Offering unique commentary and expressing their cabinet of curiosities, Aluta creates, and shares visual and interactive artwork that tackles politics, perception, pop culture, and technology – often coated in cheeky irreverence – using many absurdist and punk paradigms.

This body of work features Glitch art and is titled CLANDESTINE CAMP FOR COUNTERCULTURE DEMIGODS. 

A glitch is the unexpected result of a malfunction. Glitch Art is an art movement that centres around the practice of manipulating digital data for aesthetic purposes. This manipulation is done through a process called data-bending - editing files of one format using editing tools designed for files of a different format. The result of this structural file change is the distorted visuals that are appreciated as a form of art.

Aluta Null uses Glitch art to show the bizarre and often incoherent changes that happen when alterations are made to the core essence of things. This collection of work spotlights friction and the loss of meaning that arises when ideas and subcultures move from the underground and niche corners to mainstream popularity. The commodified glitch is being used as a visual language and a metaphor for various instances of loss of essence. This collection is intended to propel viewers to think about culture, media, and what happens when distorted depictions become popular norms.