Imperfection is the art of Boston’s 2024, “Glitch”

There’s plenty of beauty to be found in imperfections. 

That’s the impetus behind “glitch art,” an artistic movement, sparked in the early 2000s, that has permeated its way into various media over the course of the past two decades. 

Seen prominently in the likes of the 2018 animated film, “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse,” and its 2023 sequel, “Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse,” glitch art is represented through the digital corruption of image and video footage, whether intentional or accidental.

“The colors of an image can get separated,” Boston Crusaders program coordinator Keith Potter said. “Or the image is intentionally out of line. It's also in music, where musicians or sound designers will play with audio files and intentionally introduce a distortion or imperfection.”

This modern style of art also serves as the basis for Boston Crusaders’ 2024 production, “Glitch.” 

“The whole idea behind the glitch is that the imperfection is the art,” Potter said. “That's what the show is really based on.”

While “Glitch” features many characteristics that should provide intrigue for drum corps fans, one of its most notable traits is the change in direction it marks for the Massachusetts corps. 

For the better part of the last decade, Boston Crusaders’ productions have, in one way or another, told stories. Whether it was the story of the Salem Witch Trials, the Biblical stories of Goliath and the Garden of Eden, or Herman Melville’s classic novel, “Moby Dick,” the modern edition of Boston Crusaders has made its living on bringing epic tales to life. 

2024’s version may be grand, and it may bring a high level of intensity, but it won’t be a story in any sense of the word. 

“It’s definitely less story-driven,” Potter said. “It's definitely more inspired by the various layers and interactions we can use to display ‘Glitch.’ There’s a lot of different ways to do it, but it's certainly not like following the story of ‘Moby Dick.’”

Boston Crusaders have plenty of exciting visual ideas up their sleeves for this 2024 production, and if their recently-revealed uniforms are any indication, the program will be quite colorful. The corps’ 2024 attire features an array of bright-colored pants for horn line members, which pop noticeably against an otherwise black-and-white scheme.

 

Also publicly unveiled, Boston Crusaders’ 2024 program features a series of round, white props, emulative of hula hoops. In the corps’ social media reveal of these set pieces, it made use of “glitch art” photography.

According to Potter, the white props have a six-foot diameter, and the corps has 86 of them in total. He said they’ll be used in a variety of ways, including as “portals.”

“There's a multidimensional, multiverse, alternate reality aspect to the glitch idea,” he said. “So we make use of them as portals to kind of pass through as if we're able to be in different time and space.”

“We do a whole thing in the second movement where there's a big long tunnel, and the color guard is running through it,” he added. “And as they're running through it, the music changes from baroque, to jazz, to Tibetan chanting — different world music. It’s all happening within, like, 30 seconds, so it coincides with time traveling through this tunnel.”

 

While Boston Crusaders’ production is more of a conceptually-driven theme, Potter said it does carry a more “human,” emotional undertone.

Through the inspiration of glitch art, Boston Crusaders’ production intends to send the subtle message that perceived flaws can be strengths, or elements of beauty, in individuals. 

One of the corps’ design team’s chief examples for this inspiration? Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. 

“A lot of times these characters in these situations look at themselves like there's something wrong with them,” he said. “And it turns out that their flaw is a heroic trait, so the glitch actually flips itself over and becomes a positive.”

“Where we really saw this when we started was going all the way back to the ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ story,” he added. “Rudolph was really upset about what was this perceived defect, this glowing red nose, and felt not confident about it, felt upset about it and was teased about it. Ultimately, in the end, this really unique perceived imperfection turns out to be a virtuous trait.”

Audiences will experience Boston Crusaders’ “Glitch” right out of the gates of the 2024 DCI Tour, as the corps rounds out the summer’s opening-night lineup, June 26 in Rockford, Michigan.

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