48 HOUR IMAGE DATA EXPERIMENTS by Marshall Lambert on August 21-22 2014 during forty-eight hours, manually manipulate the data of three images using a variety of methods and then design the results into magazine format
CONTENTS 004 006 012 044 080 108
the original images process and methods word injection method: positive vs. negative content find & replace method rearranging data method afterthoughts
PRE-EXPERIMENT WONDERS what type of relationships will the images have to each other when placed side by side? what will be the most challenging aspect of this project? when i process these images, will they take long? what image quality will the results be? will the results be boring? will the results be exciting? will there be any similarities? differences? will certain characters produce the same results? will the results be extreme or subtle? who will use this information? where will i see the most interesting results? could this process be useful when creating art? could this process be useful when creating design? will others be curious about this process of creation? could this experiment be applied to other mediums? video? can i create certain results by using particular characters or patterns of characters? will the humor in these experiments be represented as humorous in a visual way?
MARSHALL me / myself / i
ANNA friend / photographer / sweet hearted
JOSH guitarist / athletic / coffee connoisseur
PROCESS & METHODS I. WORD INJECTION
Masaru Emoto experimented with the idea that human consciousness had an effect on the molecular structure of water. taking that idea and applying it to technology, if i inject positive words into the data of an image, will it result in a more visiually pleasing or happier image rather than if negative words were injected? would injecting negative words into the data of an image make the image more aggressive or sad? i asked several friends to help me select a group of positive and negative words to use for this method and they are displayed under each image. i converted the original three .jpg images into bitmap (.bmp) files as i found the initial results interesting and quick to process. II. FIND & REPLACE
after initial experimentation with this method, i amusingly came up with several find and replace examples. color images for this method were processed in .jpg 2000 format and the results of Anna and Josh’s photos were placed side by side to see how the same data changes effects different images. the black and white images were processed as .jpg format and the results are also placed side by side, together almost forming their own abstract images. find and replace words can be found on each page spread. III. REARRANGING DATA & OTHER PLAY
for this method i began working with the black and white images as .bmp files that were converted to .txt files. in textedit i rearranged the data in a combination of ways, sometimes smaller chunks of data, sometimes large, sometimes relocating data from the top of the file to the bottom of the file and vice versa. the first three spreads of color images in this section were also processed the same way. in this section and toward the end of my time working on these experiments i also played with deleting data and adding content. the last two images of this section, to me, are the most compelling and were achieved by playing with the hexidecimal data of the image in .jpg format.
INJEC– TION
-N I
-CEJ
+
12
does the the tone of the words injected to the image data have a visual impact on the new art? do the images injected with positive words feel more pleasant and the images injected with negative words more aggressive? what type of visual relationships are apparent when results are paired side by side?
+ vs
+ wonderful / beautiful / caring
– hate / ugly / rancid
+ balance / love / gregarious
– pugnacious / scarred / anxious
+ acceptance / luxurious / thanks
– nauseating / lonely / burden
+ capable / kindness / selfless
– selfish / hopeless / desperate
+ confident / peace / finesse
– fear / awful / critical
+ zest / passionate / wise
– disgrace / conflicted / broken
+ proud / inviting / youthful
– careless / abandon / shame
+ mighty / sun / yes
– gloomy / hostile / smother
+ fair / strong / bright
– guilty / closed / rage
+ admirable / active / colourful
– superficial / gross / defiant
+ up / best / full
– phony / lousy / never
+ agree / outstanding / grand
– danger / cynical / sullen
+ wonder / keen / fabled
– somber / duped / powerless
+ flourish / excellent / forever
– disagree / greed / rape
+ respect / fidelity / gentle
– rube / distant / panic
jpg FIND&
REPLACE FIND: ra REPLACE: 123
FIND: fu REPLACE: lol
what happens when certain characters or groups of characters are replaced with different characters?
44
&
FIND: b9 REPLACE: a7
E
FIND: fa REPLACE: rararara
FIND: 69 REPLACE: giggidy
FIND jpg 2
0
0
0
FIND: fu REPLACE: lol
FIND: ra REPLACE: 123
FIND: b9 REPLACE: a7
FIND: 69 REPLACE: giggidy
FIND: fa REPLACE: rararara
FIND: mr REPLACE: mister
FIND: fu REPLACE: nofu
FIND: ac REPLACE: sweat
FIND: tv REPLACE: videogames
FIND: tut REPLACE: kingtut
FIND: kingtut REPLACE: hegavehislifefortourism
FIND: 5s REPLACE: thenewiphone
FIND: 09 REPLACE: nein!
FIND: mr REPLACE: mister
FIND: fu REPLACE: nofu
FIND: ac REPLACE: sweat
FIND: tv REPLACE: videogames
FIND: tut REPLACE: kingtut
FIND: kingtut REPLACE: hegavehislifefortourism
FIND: 5s REPLACE: thenewiphone
FIND: 09 REPLACE: nein!
80
what happens when if the data content of a photo is rearranged? what if content is added or deleted?
other play
FIND: kingtut REPLACE: hegavehislifefortourism
AFTERTHOUGHTS i find the unpredictable nature of the results intriguing and addicting some of the methods took longer to process i wanted the design of this piece as a whole to feel clean and contemporary to really show off the results which are very diverse all methods were somewhat time consuming depending on the intensity of results i was seeking dependent upon the number of items to be replaced, the most time consuming method was find and replace my favorite method was rearranging the data because results rendered quickly allowing me to play freely my least favorite method was find and replace because if certain data characters i was trying to replace were in essential parts of the file, the file would would break results varried depending on the image, file type and the method of experimentation the most complex method was editing the hexidecimal data of the images (which is why i saved it for last and why there are only two examples) i found most of the end results to be really beautiful and quite striking when viewing results side by side i can potentially start to see a correlation between injecting + words and their effect on the image vs – words and their effect on the image ^my own sort of Masaru Emoto experiment how could i physically recreate or mimick these effects in the moment of taking the photo? which process would i enjoy more? it’s interesting to see the results side by side with the find/replace method depending on the file type and method, and similar to a web file, there are certain parts of the file that will break the file if edited my favorite aspect of this project as a whole is comparing the + and – word injection method results and find and replace results side by side
WHAT’S NEXT? i intend to continue experimenting, with these techniques and more, with still images and similarly experiment with video.