The opening sequence of QTzrk by jon.satrom creates expectations of yet another sequel to Jaws. In dramatised slow motion and accompanied by a dark score a great white shark emerges from under water. Violently twisting its enormous body in free air it bites hard on a seal with its terrifying fangs. But as the shark dives back into the sea in an explosion of water these initial expectations are abruptly distorted. The sea is flushed out through the play/pause button of the metallic QuickTime 7 screen on which the scene has been shown and ends up at the bottom of the screen like a pile of digital dirt. As the antithesis to the technological grandeur of the crystal-sharp moving images that just seconds ago were showing inside the frame, this amorphous materiality just lies there, as the graphics of the QuickTime framework starts to disintegrate in a maelstrom of glitches resulting from an unruly exploration of the familiar programme. Entropic forces are working at the heart of everyday software culture.

Image: jon.satrom