Chapter 20

Glitch Console

Nina Belojevic

Glitch Console is a hacked or “circuit-bent” Nintendo Entertainment System that links the consumer culture of video game platforms to issues of labor, exploitation, and the environment. Player experience is interrupted by various types of glitches, which dramatically affect and “haunt” game play without crashing the system itself. Circuit bending, or the practice of serendipitously modifying the behavior of electronics by soldering new connection points on a circuit board, also encourages a creative, hands-on approach to media theory and platform studies. For both the player and the artist/hacker, the Glitch Console directs attention to materials and operations.