TzAR: Pixel Art Profiles #6 – Mazin, silvasantuz, Glitch Town Arcade
Kyle Flemmer profiles three video game ROM corruptors included in the forthcoming Tezos Art Review (TzAR): Pixel Art Anthology.
If you take a photograph of a pencil sketch on paper, is the result a photo, or a sketch, or a bit of both? What about if you take a photograph and pixelate it, or a pixel art image and make it photorealistic? I tend to think that multi- or trans-medial artworks retain qualities of all their mediums while maybe or maybe not belonging to the strict definition of any one of those mediums. Thus, if you take pixel art and modify it in some way beyond the limitations of that specific medium, I think it still qualifies in some way as pixel art.
Several of the works in TzAR: Pixel Art Review have only one foot in pixel art as a defining medium. Many of these creative practices take pixel art source material and bend or break it in novel ways. Video game ROM corruption is a medium unto itself, and it is also one of the most popular incarnations of pixel art on the Tezos blockchain. Hack and glitch seem to thrive in underground art scenes, and ROM corruption remains one of the most accessible interventions into pop culture video game history available to contemporary artists. It is therefore no surprise that an abundance of extraordinary ROM corruption artists make Tezos their home.
“Pixel Art Profiles #6 celebrates three pixel artists who take ROM corruption to a whole new level of creativity. By embracing the technical challenges and limitations of ROM corruption, these artists pioneer a new pixel art aesthetic arising from the spontaneous breakdown of existing media.”
Mazin
RE//HACK by Mazin, minted August 20, 2024
Artist statement: “As a glitch art enthusiast, I delved into the world of video game glitching through ROM corruption and hex editing tools. This technique involves corrupting ROM files to create unique, distorted glitch textures by manipulating the game's code and pixels.”
silvasantuz
horse racing 2 (frame 1) by silvasantuz, minted October 24, 2023
Artist statement: “silvasantuz is an artist who makes corrupted art with game ROMs, focused on nostalgia and glitchart. since 2023, there have been several stages and several different projects around this theme, in addition to new improvements and methods of how to do it.”
Glitch Town Arcade
Highway by Glitch Town Arcade, minted March 14, 2024
Artist statement: “Glitch Town Arcade is a digital artist specializing in glitch art, transforming digital distortions into unique, immersive visuals. His work blends nostalgia with experimental digital techniques, using data corruption, pixel manipulation, and chaotic aesthetics to create striking compositions. Beyond their digital explorations, the artist also works under the alias Glitch Town, which focuses on an analog approach to glitch aesthetics. Using CRT TVs, modified video synthesizers, and real-time signal distortion, Glitch Town embraces raw, unfiltered visuals, bridging the gap between old and new media. Through these distinct approaches, Glitch Town Arcade continuously challenges perceptions of digital errors, transforming technological imperfections into a unique visual language.”
TzAR: Pixel Art Anthology will be published by The Blasted Tree Publishing Co. in August 2025. Stay tuned for more Pixel Art Profiles in the coming weeks as we prepare the book for publication!