Digital Dazzle and the Ghosts of Glitter Past
Sometimes, as I wander through the Edinburgh streets I once danced down in my teens and twenties, I am visited by the ghosts of glitter past - vivid memories of Vegas, Going Places, and countless other glitter-filled clubs that paid homage to the gaudiness of the 1970s. Bedecked in sequins and covered head to toe in spray glitter, we were walking mirror-balls. My husband fondly remembers returning home coated in the sparkle of everyone he had danced near. In retrospect, our ignorance of microplastics somewhat paints us as environmental villains, but, oh, they were fun times!
But really, the crux of the meander down Amnesia Lane is to consider our fondness for all that glitters - sequins, mirror balls, sunlight on oceans. Is it just me or as a species, are we hard-wired for sparkle? Are we closer to magpies than we’d care to admit? Research suggests that humans have an innate attraction to “glossiness”, possibly a remnant of ancestral searching for water (Meert et al., 2013). Either that or possibly a cultural association that equates shimmer with wealth? Maybe that is why we chase the bling: because all that glitters might not be gold, but even if it isn’t, we will still look twice. We just can’t help ourselves.
Perhaps that is why digital sparkle never quite satisfies - it glows, but it doesn’t glint. AI can conjure the illusion of sparkle, pixel-perfect and mathematically precise. Yet it can’t make you feel it - the moment that the sunlight hits the water at the beach, or the supernatural spectacle of bioluminescence at the water's edge. Sparkle is sensory. It is visceral. AI and CGI can emulate, but never replace.
So what does all this mean? For me, in my little artistic corner, it’s a reminder that some things can never be replicated, can never be replaced by whizz-bangery, no matter how “dazzling” the technology or clever the code. They have to be seen and felt in person. They ask something of us - a walk over the dunes, staying up past bedtime, or sometimes just a moment of stillness. And I think over time, as the sheen of the digital world continues to spread, these moments of raw, real connection will only grow in value. As a species, we need them. Some things can’t be faked. And maybe that’s what makes them worth noticing.