Databending vs Glitch
データベンディング / グリッチ
Databending comes from Digital Image Techniques and Glitch from UI Expression. One is technique and the other style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Databending
Databending edits image or sound files with tools not intended for their format, turning a decoder's misreading into the work; file structure, compression and edit position determine its bands and color shifts.
Glitch
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Refuses to hide error and corruption, exposing the fragility of the digital medium itself.
| Databending | Glitch | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 2000s– | digital |
| Family | Digital Image Techniques | UI Expression |
| Kind | Technique | Style |
| Cues | Sections of an image displaced into horizontal bands / Separated color channels and unexpected saturation / Local compression blocks that leave the source visible / Row-like fractures repeating from the edit point | Channel shift / Block noise / Scanlines / Dropout |
| Best used for | Showing the fragility and format-dependence of digital files through the damaged image · Colliding source imagery with decoder error in video, covers and posters | Expressing uncertainty and system failure · A jolt of tension in music and video |
| Type | Add copy after bending, or displace only part of a duplicate headline along the same axis. | Partially corrupt a monospace or plain sans |
| Composition | Preserve one identifiable point and use the fracture direction as a compositional axis. | Build the healthy composition first, then break part of it |
| Material | Duplicate the file, protect its header and edit only payload data through another format's editor. | RGB shift, compression noise, missing pieces |
| Caution | A glitch overlay is not databending. The way one format was deliberately misread must determine the result. | Perpetual glitch loses meaning. Stage the difference between normal and broken. |