While the show was intended to critique popular culture by way of datamosh interventions, this culture caught up with him overnight, when the effect penetrated the mainstream just prior to the opening of his show. Davis’ show was partially based on a formal and aesthetic exploration of the artifact. Davis was preparing for his solo show at the Seventeen Gallery in London. With the help of the software, file sharers could become ‘authors by re-interpreting their most beloved films’.Ī swift maturation of the datamoshing effect took place in 2009 at the same time as Paul B. The result became the rough material for his online transformation software, which translated ‘the underlying data structures of the films onto the surface of the screen’. In his next project, Download Finished! (2007), König explored how the codec could be used to transform and republish found footage from p2p networks and online archives.

Through the use of the Xvid codec and copyrighted material, König tried to pinpoint the tension between the usage of non-proprietary compression codecs and their uptake in DRM (Digital Rights Management) remix-strategies. His work included an open source software script that could be used to trigger the compression-effect in realtime. In aPpRoPiRaTe! (Sweden: 2005) König used the codec to manipulate and appropriate ‘complete video files found in file sharing networks’. Xvid is a primary competitor of the proprietary DivX Pro Codec (note that Xvid is DivX spelled backwards), which is often used for speedy online video distribution through peer-to-peer networks. In 2005, Sven König embarked on his exploration into the politics of file standards, through this particular datamoshing effect, and in relation to the free codec Xvid. This makes the video morph in unexpected colours and forms. The outcome of this deletion is the visualisation of the indexed movement of macroblocks, smearing over the surface of an old keyframe. The artifact caused by compression is stable and reproducible, as it is the effective outcome of keyframes being deleted. The datamosh artifact is located in a realm where compression artifacts and glitch artifacts collide. One case study of a compression artifact, referred to as ‘datamoshing’, tells an especially interesting account of glitch cultivation. 21)Īs the popularization and cultivation of glitch artifacts is spreading, it is interesting to track the development of these processes in specific case studies. Douglas Kahn, Noise Water Meat: 1999 (p.

“We already know too much for noise to exist”

Computer datamoshes online videos