glitchr turns facebook bugs into art

a facebook layout bug exposed by laimonas zakas in 'glitchr'


'glitchr', a project undertaken by lithuanian laimonas zakas, uses unicode characters to exploit programming bugs
of common web destinations (including facebook, tumblr, and google), resulting in visually interesting textual
digital art that overwrites the standardized formatting generally used by these sites.

the process differs from simple ASCII art in that it involves using non-character entities to effectively 'break'
layout engines on website servers, resulting in text overlain on what would normally be comment sections
or search bars. searching for 'glitchr' on google already showcases zakas's work, with a slanted double line
appearing over his page results.

besides its visual interest, 'glitchr' holds a kind of intrigue for the way in which it subverts the clean lines
and strict infrastructure of much of the internet. exposing vulnerabilities in the code, even where the 'glitches'
are harmless, destabilizes the 'myth' of transparent representation and order, reminding viewers that the 'real' nature
of each webpage is the thousands of lines of its source code. zakas notes that he suspects his work is also used
by companies to debug their own code, as 'tricks' he once highlighted, like the use of animated pictures in thumbnails
on facebook, have since been disabled.

explore zakas's project via the 'glitchr' facebook page, where clicking on different links causes various
unexpected behaviour; or on the 'glitchr' tumblr.













zakas even enacts his work on the google search results interface



'glitchr' on tumblr














via techcrunch