Michael Betancourt

Michael Betancourt is a contemporary Cuban-American critical theorist, moviemaker, and research artist known for his pioneering work in the fields of Digital Capitalism, Motion Graphics, and Glitch Art. He explores the intersection of technology, culture, and aesthetics in a diverse practice unified by consistent concerns for the poetic potential of images made by errors—both physical and virtual eruptions that are commonly ignored and rejected. Born into an artistic and intellectual family that encouraged his interest in media art from an early age, he received a Bachelor of Arts in film and video from Temple University in Philadelphia, and a Doctoral degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. His work has been exhibited worldwide in prestigious art fairs, galleries, and museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the M+ Cinema in Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, the Mitte Media festival, and the Tate Modern in London. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Iowa Arts Council, and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. His films showcase his technical proficiency and a sharp visual sense, using digital glitches to convey complex themes and ideas through a unique visual language. By emphasizing aesthetics, Betancourt draws viewers into a world that can radiate a cold and latent violence, yet also evoke disconcerting beauty. The inherent allure of digital abstraction further complicates the layers of meaning in his pieces that include 'The Kodak Moment' (2013), a movie that explores the nature of cinema and perception through glitch processes that transform animation, live-action footage, and compression artifacts into a dreamlike atmosphere that captivates the viewer, and 'The Instaglitch Project' (2015–2021) that meditates on the immediacy of digital technology and media by using still images created by glitching the Instagram application. Betancourt is also a prolific writer and scholar, with numerous articles and books exploring the history of digital technology, cultural studies, and media art that have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish. His critical writing challenges the limits of the digital medium and offers fresh perspectives on our world and our place within it. His movies, visual art, and critical writing reflect his unwavering dedication to exploring complex ideas and emotions.