Databending

データベンディング / 2000s– / Technique / Digital Image Techniques

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.

Databending — green.qt_slippage, exhibited digital glitch work — jonCates — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
green.qt_slippage, exhibited digital glitch work — jonCates — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Databending — AI-generated interpretation 1
AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work
Databending — AI-generated interpretation 2
AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work

At a glance

Visual 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

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

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Dictionary entry

Type
Add copy after bending, or displace only part of a duplicate headline along the same axis.
Composition
Preserve one identifiable point and use the fracture direction as a compositional axis.
Material
Duplicate the file, protect its header and edit only payload data through another format's editor.
Caution
A glitch overlay is not databending. The way one format was deliberately misread must determine the result.
Further study
Raw data editing / File headers and payload / Compression artifacts as material

Related entries

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Continue through styles in the same Digital Image Techniques family, prioritised by shared effects.

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https://indexstyle.org/styles/databending
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