Gameplay Journal Entry #6 Brewer

For this journal entry, I have chosen to cover the glitch of audio clipping. It is something that generally occurs when the volume on computer audio is too high for speakers to handle and it causes distortion in the audio (and potentially damage to speakers and listener’s hearing). I find it interesting because it is generally considered poor form for digital audio and unpleasant to listen to, but has taken on a popularity online as a sort of punchline to jokes.

In the reading, Ferreira states that “In this sense, a glitch is both the product of malfunction and artificial creation.” and I think this applies to these uses of audio clipping where the context is humorous instead of just an audio output malfunction. Amplifying the audio to such extreme levels produces a new variation of the original audio due to the effects of clipping. All that said, I’ve rarely seen it intentionally used outside of the realm of humor. The few examples would probably go to songs or sounds that are supposed to be loud and bombastic (amplified by the clipping), but since clipping distorts the original sound and can cause damage to devices if played over a long period of time I think this is a more questionable decision that is more often than not likely to be an accident. The glitch is often done in such a way that simply raising volume to the point of distortion on content is the point of a joke, similar to “deep-fried” jpeg images that are compressed to the point of being nearly indecipherable.

Examples of clipping (due to the nature of the glitch audio will be very loud so I advise listeners to turn their volume down):

Work cited:

Ferreira, Pedro, and Luísa Ribas. Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art. 2020.XCoAx.org, 2020.