MEGAN FLAHERTY
Life’s A Glitch The Life’s a glitch project is based upon political and cultural goings on in the 1990’s. I looked more closey into the South African Border War, after researching more into this event I began by creating vectors of the military equipment used especially the artiliary. Whilst referencing my research I came across the traditional south african dress, more so the patterns of the fabrics themselves. When i was experimenting with various techniques I came across an art movement called Glitch Art. The whole world of Glitch Art spoke to me and inspired the designs of my work, movements such as Cachemash,VHS,Decm8, EyeStrain,Sea Punk,Databend,Vaporwave and Web Punk were an alien concept to me, but after finding examples of the art work created there was so much inspiration into where i wanted to progress with my project. The collection of T-Shirt that I have designed somewhat remind me of old 90’s computers when the screen would have a delay and you could pull the tab across with your mouse creating patterns, more so the infamous solitaire game where the cards would bounce down the screen when the game had ended.
1) Uzi- Pixel Vector: First stage of the T-Shirt designs. I created a vector in an 8-bit format.I kept the colours range tones of blue, to subtly bring out the detailing of the gun, ready for the next step of databending the vector. 2) Using the method of databending in simplier terms is where you convert an image to a .raw file then change the images coding in notepad then convert the .raw file back into a .jpg. This then changes the construct of the original images creating a unique outcome. The 2nd image is a perfect example of the technique.
Glitch Uzi The use of the data-bending method corrupted the file, making it impossiple to open in photoshop. So i took a screen shot of the vector and copied it into Photoshop finally being able to adjust the contrast and vibrance, this made the colours pop. It’s an unusual method as you are pretty much flying blind when changing the images codeing. I sometimes open the vector in an image viewer,where possible as this makes the process a little but easier to visualize.
Databending is the alteration of raw data to influence the data’s interpretation. Databending is commonly used to create in sound and image files effects that are exclusively digital in nature. The methods employed in databending are as varied as the results achieved. There are many varied and undefined methods of databending audio files, some more involved than others. While there are programs available that will perform certain databending processes on audio files (such as granular synths), some of the simplest methods require nothing more than typical computer programs. Text Editor Bending-One of the easiest methods of databending audio files is to open the audio file in a text editor, such as Notepad. The text editor will display the raw data of the file in text format. Databending at this level becomes as easy as selecting a block of text and altering it by deleting or copying and pasting the block, or replacing random characters within in the file. Unlike most databending technicues, this method tends to work better with MP3 files than with WAV files, which are less flexible and typically the only noticible result is to have the entire WAV turned into a square chunk of white noise distortion.
Life’s A Glitch A T-shirt collection of 90’s Inspired culture and political events. Who didn’t love the 90’s, the fashion, music and toys were so cool! It was so great that I based my whole Final Project on it, the whole process has been so fun to create and develop. The photo-shoot was certainly a great experience, even if the sea was freezing! I got the idea of creating 90’s inspired clothing, when I was playing solitaire on my laptop when the cards bounced down the screen, this gave me the inspiration. I came across a movement called Glitch Art a few months ago and knew this process would be perfect when it came to creating my patterns.