{{Short description|Distortion of digital media}} thumb|upright=1.3|A databent image of a white tiger, introducing unpredictable visual artifacts in the lower half of the frame '''Databending''' (or '''data bending''') is the process of manipulating a media file of a certain format, using software designed to edit files of another format. Distortions in the medium typically occur as a result, and the process is frequently employed in glitch art.
==Process and techniques== The term ''databending'' is derived from circuit bending, in which objects such as children's toys, effects pedals and electronic keyboards are deliberately short circuited by bending the circuit board to produce erratic and spontaneous sounds. Like circuit bending,<ref name="Geere2010"/> databending involves the (often unpredictable) alteration of its target's behavior. Databending achieves this alteration by manipulating the information within a media file of a certain format, using software designed to edit files of a different format; distortions in the medium typically occur as a result.<ref name="AhujaLu2014"/><ref name="Geere2010"/>
Many techniques exist, including the use of hex editors to manipulate certain components of a compression algorithm, to comparatively simple methods.<ref name="Geere2010"/> Michael Betancourt has posed a short set of instructions, included in the ''Signal Culture Cookbook,'' that involves the direct manipulation of the digital file using a hexadecimal editing program. One such method involves the addition of audio effects through audio editing software to distort raw data interpretations of image files. Some effects produce optical analogues: adding an echo filter duplicated elements of a photo, and inversion contributed to the flipping over of an image. The similarities result from the waveforms corresponding with the layers of pixels in a linear fashion, ordered from top to bottom.<ref name="AhujaLu2014"/> Another method, dubbed "the WordPad effect", uses the program WordPad to manipulate images through converting the raw data to the Rich Text Format.<ref name="Berg2008"/>
===Categorization=== According to the artist Benjamin Berg, different techniques of the process can be grouped into three categories:<ref name="Berg2008"/> * Incorrect editing: Files of a certain format are manipulated using software designed to edit files of a different format. * Reinterpretation: Files are simply converted from one medium to another. * Forced errors: Known software bugs are exploited to force the program to terminate, usually while writing a file. The "WordPad effect" would fall under ''incorrect editing'', while ''reinterpretation'' contains a subcategory called ''sonification'', in which data other than audio is introduced simultaneously with musical audio data. The last technique is the hardest of the three to accomplish, often yielding highly unpredictable results.<ref name="Berg2008"/>
==Usage and reception== thumb|right|upright|Alva Noto uses sonification in his music. Databending is frequently employed in glitch art,<ref name="AhujaLu2014"/> and is considered a sub-category of the genre.<ref name="Geere2010"/> The ''sonification'' technique is commonly used by glitch musicians such as Alva Noto.<ref name="Geere2010"/> Ahuja and Lu summarized the process through a quote by Adam Clark Estes of ''Gizmodo'' as "the internet's code-heavy version of graffiti."<ref name="AhujaLu2014"/><ref name="Estes2013"/> Various groups on Flickr explore the effects of databending on imagery; an Internet bot named "GlitchBot" was created to scrape Creative Commons-licensed imagery and apply the process and upload the results.<ref name="Geere2010"/> Users on Vimeo who deal explicitly with databending and glitch art in general exist, and a Chicago-based digital art project named GLI.TC/H was funded using Kickstarter in 2011.<ref name="Weber2011"/>
== See also== * Compression artifact
==References== {{Reflist | colwidth=30em | refs=<!-- --><ref name="AhujaLu2014">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/07/23/what-paris-looks-like-with-an-echo/ |title=What Paris looks like with an echo |publisher=Nash Holdings |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=23 July 2014 |accessdate=28 July 2014 |author=Ahuja, Masuma |author2=Lu, Denise |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729103539/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/07/23/what-paris-looks-like-with-an-echo/ |archivedate=29 July 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> <!-- --><ref name="Berg2008">{{cite web | url=http://blog.animalswithinanimals.com/2008/08/databending-and-glitch-art-primer-part.html | title=Databending and Glitch Art Primer Part 1: The WordPad Effect | work=stAllio!'s way | date=7 August 2008 | author=Berg, Benjamin }}</ref> <!-- --><ref name="Estes2013">{{cite web |url=https://gizmodo.com/create-your-own-broken-masterpieces-with-this-glitch-ar-1309634963 |title=Create Your Own Broken Masterpieces with This Glitch Art Generator |publisher=Gawker Media |work=Gizmodo |date=13 September 2013 |accessdate=28 July 2014 |author=Estes, Adam Clark |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729042904/http://gizmodo.com/create-your-own-broken-masterpieces-with-this-glitch-ar-1309634963 |archivedate=29 July 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> <!-- --><ref name="Geere2010">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/17/glitch-art-databending |title=Glitch art created by 'databending' |publisher=Condé Nast |magazine=Wired |date=17 August 2010 |accessdate=28 July 2014 |author=Geere, Duncan |edition=UK |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012203915/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/17/glitch-art-databending |archivedate=12 October 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> <!-- --><ref name="Weber2011">{{cite web |url=https://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/12/21/extrafile-databending-and-corrupt-files-as-art/ |title=ExtraFile: Databending and corrupt files as art |work=The Next Web |date=21 December 2011 |accessdate=28 July 2014 |author=Weber, Harrison |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729043254/http://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/12/21/extrafile-databending-and-corrupt-files-as-art/ |archivedate=29 July 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> }}
==External links== * [http://www.michaelbetancourt.com/pdf/Cookbook_Databending.pdf] A Simple Protocol for Databending by Michael Betancourt * [https://snorpey.github.io/jpg-glitch/ Glitch art application] by Georg Fischer * {{Flickr-inline2|photos/glitchbot/|GlitchBot}} * [http://gli.tc/ Official website] of GLI.TC/H * [http://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/ Databending using Audacity] by Antonio Roberts * [https://www.intelligentmachinery.net/projects/databending/ Audio databending] by Intelligent Machinery
Category:Artistic techniques Category:Computer errors Category:Computer graphic techniques Category:Digital electronics Category:Film and video technology Category:New media Category:Software anomalies Category:Software bugs