JOHANNA

JOHANNA is a collection of glitch art images of 90s retro photographs starring Black women smoking cigarettes and joints. Sourced online, the images' origins and photographers are not easily traceable, as is the case for a lot of retro media that exists on the Internet. Johanna is the English name given (during the South African Apartheid regime) to the caregiver who raised me from the tenderness of infancy to the confusion of adolescence. Johanna was a very heavy smoker (cigarettes were what I saw), and my first image of a chain-smoker. I would later become a seasoned spectator to the frequent inhaling of smoke. I would even later become aware of how rare my everyday depiction is in media.

Databending is where I corrupt media most violently. The result of databending digital images is visual distortion, or “glitching”. The glitches that signify the process of manipulating media and breaking the rules of technology have served as a cathartic artistic practice for me to reference radicalism, metamorphosis, disruption, transgression, tension, chaos, and marks of errors (systemic, social, psychological, and technological). Databending was used as a tool for this series to represent the interesting kind of error that this very cool imagery tends to be similar to socially.

Aluta Null (they/she) is a digital artist and game developer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Aluta works in a variety of mediums including XR and games to create work that tackles topics surrounding technology, politics, perception, and pop culture. Aluta Null not only spotlights what many consider mundane, but also seeks to break the rules of technology while meditating on what art means, what the digital is, and what their fusion can be.

Aluta Null’s LinkTree for more browsing and information may be viewed at this link: https://linktr.ee/alutas_theory