Abstract

Blobsquatch: In the Expanded Field

Carl Diehl

“If there is any chance of finding really extraordinary animals on earth, it will be…in those worlds almost all over the earth, which we have not yet found or not thoroughly searched,”
-Bernard Heuvelmanns, On The Track of Unknown Animals, 1955

Cryptozoology, a field known for its inquiries into unknown creatures like the Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster, constitutes a challenge to exclusive hierarchies of knowledge and established scientific authority by presenting alternative theories and new taxonomic models. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin ensnared cryptozoology's most moving images in celluloid. Caught in mid stride, glancing towards the camera, the iconic Bigfoot sequence has become the standard against which all other potential Bigfoot documentation is measured. Today, many Bigfoot aficionados have dismissed “blobsquatches” (photos too blurry to be discernible as sasquatches) as impediments to serious cryptozoological research.

In my recent video series "Blobsquatch in the Expanded Field," the Blobsquatch itself is pursued as an unknown “animal.” Complicating and confabulating the spaces between real/virtual, new /old media, signal/noise, the Blobsquatch is more than a mere visual deception produced by fumbling with a lens. Deriving tropes from cryptozoology, I have explored errors, glitches and other aberrations as potential “missing links” in technocultural evolution. Marked by a belief that hidden forms of knowledge exist outside of high-tech systems and routine procedures, the vernacular electronic art of circuit-bending provides striking parallels. In search of unknown audio-visual manifestations, circuit-bending involves cracking open and intentionally short-circuiting electronic toys to discover new forms of expression. Contrary to prescribed operation, circuit-bending has revealed an incredible spectrum of possibilities made accessible only through misuse of electronics. Delving further into the correlations between technological and zoological unknowns it has become clear that the Blobsquatch is not alone. There are entire ecologies to be uncovered in the margins of error.