New image formats for artistic purpose.
March 27, 2012 5:13 PM Subscribe
I am sure more than a few of you are involved in gli.tc/h, and thus prepared to discuss extrafile, brainchild of one Kim Asendorf (previously), in greater detail. New image formats for artistic purpose, anyone?
A bit more context, OP?
Tangentially related: my new favourite piece of glitch art:
http://i.imgur.com/nucUy.gif
posted by dontjumplarry at 5:37 PM on March 27, 2012 [4 favorites]
Tangentially related: my new favourite piece of glitch art:
http://i.imgur.com/nucUy.gif
posted by dontjumplarry at 5:37 PM on March 27, 2012 [4 favorites]
Is this just for the fun of making an image format, or are these expected to gain widespread acceptance?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 5:38 PM on March 27, 2012
posted by Threeway Handshake at 5:38 PM on March 27, 2012
From the wiki:
"In the winter of 2010 GLI.TC/H was a festival/conference/gathering held in Chicago, IL for five days which consisted of glitchy art, hacking/coding workshops, discussions, screenings, lectures, and realtime audio/video performances."
posted by SomaSoda at 5:45 PM on March 27, 2012
"In the winter of 2010 GLI.TC/H was a festival/conference/gathering held in Chicago, IL for five days which consisted of glitchy art, hacking/coding workshops, discussions, screenings, lectures, and realtime audio/video performances."
posted by SomaSoda at 5:45 PM on March 27, 2012
I um, alright; I don't get it. What is the advantage over a standard format? I'm all for new formats, I wish people would implement support for them more quickly, but these seem kinda pointless. It looks like someones project teaching themselves how file formats work. Wouldn't it be better just to run a transformation on the image that gives the same effect, then save it to png, so other people can view it?
posted by Canageek at 5:46 PM on March 27, 2012
posted by Canageek at 5:46 PM on March 27, 2012
This is bringing me back to when the program Studio/1 existed. Remember that one? I think Electronic Arts made it. It was a monochrome art and animation program for Macs. It existed in tandem with Studio/8 and Studio/32. It ruled. I would give my entire endocrine system to play with it again.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:52 PM on March 27, 2012
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:52 PM on March 27, 2012
gli.tc/h list of artists. Any Mefites among them? Extrafile is how I found myself at gli.tc/h. Context is art.
posted by zachhouston at 6:11 PM on March 27, 2012
posted by zachhouston at 6:11 PM on March 27, 2012
Why a new format? Isn't part of the point of glitch art to break and bend the laws of an established file format so it can do new and exciting things? A format tailored to it would be awkward.
To use an audio metaphor, this is like creating a new codec just to listen to remixes (if I'm understanding this correctly...)
posted by raihan_ at 6:21 PM on March 27, 2012
To use an audio metaphor, this is like creating a new codec just to listen to remixes (if I'm understanding this correctly...)
posted by raihan_ at 6:21 PM on March 27, 2012
So after poking around a bit more, it looks like this is a set of image formats that are deliberately weird or impractical, or limited in what they can represent, or lossy in some odd way, that someone has written as a kind of conceptual art.
Yes? No? Maybe?
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:24 PM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yes? No? Maybe?
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:24 PM on March 27, 2012 [1 favorite]
Perhaps also they are designed to break in fun and interesting ways when you corrupt them?
posted by en forme de poire at 8:38 PM on March 27, 2012
posted by en forme de poire at 8:38 PM on March 27, 2012
*Squeezes chicken.*
posted by ColdChef at 8:41 PM on March 27, 2012 [6 favorites]
posted by ColdChef at 8:41 PM on March 27, 2012 [6 favorites]
Not involved with gli.tc/h, but a huge fan. Glad to see it here.
The file formats in extrafile do nothing visible that a Photoshop filter or Processing script couldn't do; a more robust lossless format could easily store a depiction of the same image. But as they say on the page, the point is that the data storage itself is the art. "Real" lossy formats use smarty-pants algorithms to minimize the perception of data loss, while these formats were made specifically to call attention to it (and not just the appearance of it) as an aesthetic. I think that's pretty neat.
In general, data corruption is fun, at least when it's not happening to your hard drive. We emulator dorks have a blast randomly replacing bytes of data and program code in video game ROM files (or using game genie codes to similar effect). You end up with stuff like this, this, and this. One time we turned Bayou Billy into Merzbow, it was a great way to spend an evening.
Then again, I can amuse myself almost indefinitely with the command "cat some_file > /dev/audio" -- structured / repetitive files like executables and databases sound amazing.
Then there are the unintentional, once-in-a-lifetime, edge-case glitches.. I sent emails recently to several childhood friends, saying "I WAITED 20 YEARS TO PROVE I WASN'T LYING ABOUT THIS HAPPENING. BELIEVE IT, LARGE HUMAN."
posted by jake at 4:06 AM on March 28, 2012 [2 favorites]
The file formats in extrafile do nothing visible that a Photoshop filter or Processing script couldn't do; a more robust lossless format could easily store a depiction of the same image. But as they say on the page, the point is that the data storage itself is the art. "Real" lossy formats use smarty-pants algorithms to minimize the perception of data loss, while these formats were made specifically to call attention to it (and not just the appearance of it) as an aesthetic. I think that's pretty neat.
In general, data corruption is fun, at least when it's not happening to your hard drive. We emulator dorks have a blast randomly replacing bytes of data and program code in video game ROM files (or using game genie codes to similar effect). You end up with stuff like this, this, and this. One time we turned Bayou Billy into Merzbow, it was a great way to spend an evening.
Then again, I can amuse myself almost indefinitely with the command "cat some_file > /dev/audio" -- structured / repetitive files like executables and databases sound amazing.
Then there are the unintentional, once-in-a-lifetime, edge-case glitches.. I sent emails recently to several childhood friends, saying "I WAITED 20 YEARS TO PROVE I WASN'T LYING ABOUT THIS HAPPENING. BELIEVE IT, LARGE HUMAN."
posted by jake at 4:06 AM on March 28, 2012 [2 favorites]
I like this kind of thing, taking an established media and twisting it to see what will come out. It reminds me of jodi.org (lots of good links) or superbad or 101001011.org (can't remember the correct website name right now), and corrupt.recyclism.com. Would've liked to have seen more info in this post about other people who are doing things like this, it would've been pretty impressive instead of "ok, sorta".
posted by Zack_Replica at 9:45 AM on March 28, 2012
posted by Zack_Replica at 9:45 AM on March 28, 2012
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posted by nebulawindphone at 5:33 PM on March 27, 2012 [3 favorites]