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Allison Tanenhaus

Screaky

Mini music video created with iPhone apps

Mini music video with audio + video by Boston-based digital glitch artist Allison Tanenhaus. Created with iPhone apps, including Audio Kit Pro’s Synth One app.

"My practice itself is rooted in egalitarian methods. I create my primary art form—glitch art—using apps on my phone, and run workshops to teach others my self-taught techniques. While the cost of the phone is of course an obstacle, I’ve been able to create compelling pieces using apps that cost $2 (or are even free!), compared to professional software that can total hundreds or thousands, and is often too complicated for newbies to just pick up and run with.

I’m increasingly more confident in how I leverage my app-titude (sorry!) to create still imagery, animations, and even music, all on my phone. I aim to keep pushing the boundaries of what I can create using accessible apps, and how transported I can make people feel with my colorful and trippy results."

– Allison Tanenhaus

About the artist

Allison Tanenhaus

Allison Tanenhaus (she/her) is a New York–born, Boston–based digital glitch artist. She specializes in trippy op art, anachronistic tech mashups, and unexpected dimensional qualities. Source material consists of her photos, AI imagery, and artifacts that she reconfigures using smartphone apps. Made with equal parts deliberation and experimentation, the remixed results are rainbow-hued mutations that take on a psychedelic life of their own.

At a time when platforms pervasively cull personal data—and digital flawlessness is the norm—she views reclaiming devices, embracing error, and transforming environments as radical acts of autonomy and mindfulness. Also looks way cool.

Her work has been showcased in 26 countries via exhibitions, public art, festivals, and guerrilla postings. Highlights include the ICA Store at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Boston Cyberarts, Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, SaveArtSpace, “Empowered Women Empower Women” curated by Paris Hilton, the Alternative Power 100 by shesaid.so and Patreon, and her traveling shows “GlitchKraft” and “Haus Party.”

Tanenhaus is a grantee of Somerville’s Visual Art Fellowship and the City of Boston’s Transformative Public Art Program, and is a member of electronic music group The Square Root of Negative Two and optical installation duo bent/haus.
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