Stallio is as old-school as flickr-using glitch artists come. He started posting databends on flickr only a few months after the site got its start back in 2004, and he’s still going strong today. Many glitch-related image pools list him as one of the top contributing members, and his photostream contains an overwhelming amount of work.
Just as significantly, he has been (and continues to be) a strong member of the glitch-making community. The tutorials on his site have inspired and educated many newcomers. When I first started experimenting with glitches I came across these tutorials via flickr and they opened up new worlds of possibility.
I interviewed Stallio for my Flickr Glitch Artists post on Vague Terrain. Here’s the interview in full, un-edited.
Me: How do you first develop and explore an idea/concept?
Stallio: glitch projects are usually about solving some kind of puzzle: how to bend a certain type of file, how to get the effect i want, how to get it to glitch in the right place, how to get the best colors, etc. source material is usually chosen because the form is right for some reason, but sometimes i will want to glitch a certain type of subject matter.
Me: What methods, mediums, and tools do you use?
Stallio: i’ll use any software i can figure out how to databend with. mostly i use hex editors, wav editors, and notepad. which tools i use depend on what kind of effect i’m going for.
Me: What are some of your influences? Where do you find inspiration?
Stallio: if i see that others have gotten an interesting effect then i may be inspired to figure out how they did it and try to duplicate that effect. but beyond that it’s hard to discuss “inspiration” for databending considering that so much of it is just trial and error until something interesting happens.
Me: Do you see flickr as a community, or simply a platform on which to display your work?
Stallio: it’s a bit of both. i definitely would have fewer fans and wouldn’t have “met” as many other glitch artists if not for the flickr pools.
Me: What are the pros and cons of displaying work on flickr?
Stallio: though there are things i don’t like about flickr, i can’t think of anything i don’t like about hosting my images there right now. it’s easy to work with, automatically resizes my work to a few standard sizes, and i can post my work to the pools where i know it’ll be seen by an appreciative audience.
Me: Besides flickr, where else do you display/exhibit your work?
Stallio: i have my own web site, and have shown my work in a couple galleries.
Me: What display environments and mediums would you like to explore in the future?
Stallio: i’ve been trying to move away from purely abstract glitch to introduce more traditional illustration aspects, for example doing illustrations and using glitches for textures/fills.
