Databent Image Gallery 01


Databending is an artistic technique involving the intentional mistreatment of digital files (such as sound, video, or image files), usually by causing them to interact with incompatible software, in order to produce new and unpredictable results. This is essentially the software equivalent of circuit-bending, whereby new connections are created upon the circuit board of a sound-producing electronic device to distort and manipulate the audio output; this technique has been used for some time by certain noise artists on everything from keyboards to simple toys. I have incorporated my own databent video into many audio-visual pieces, and thought I would offer some of my new still images produced by this technique. Other than simple color correction, these were produced solely by the interaction between the source video and the various programs (mostly word-processing software) in which they were opened and saved.