045 – Data Bending

These two images were created by data bending. This is sometimes referred to as ‘Glitch Art’. The process is this: take a photo and edit the code using a hex editor. You use ‘find and replace’ to turn letters and numbers into other numbers, words, or just randomness. The goal is to mess up the code enough that you get something interesting, but not so much that you corrupt the image completely.
 
I’m using a Mac and found a handy application called Hex Fiend, which is free and open source. I had to try a bunch of times with each photo to get things to happen. Sometimes the picture would end up corrupting, but I got a couple of good ones. The results reminded me of Brian Eno’s newer album ‘Drums Between The Bells’, but I read that he did that art with photoshop.
 

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