Absdiff = Absolute Difference
Absdiff(Absolute difference) is a series of natural pixelated, glitchy images and screenshots collected from my phone and laptop, interprets the pure aesthetics of errors of the image encoding process. I've been getting many glitchy images this year without knowing the theory of glitch art nor image encoding process. Those randomly generated glitches amaze me with their unpredictable color patterns, and ask me the question:
"What is the undiscovered underlying structure of a digital image？"
Absdiff, A ghost of computational process, a happy mistakes of 0 & 1, a primitive machine-machine interaction.
Until this October, I started to observe carefully on those image files, realized they all have something in common - they're subtly pixelated screenshots. After I discovered the pattern of randomly pixelated images, I developed a method to create pixelated screenshots through digital photography, and import them to Adobe Illustrator; the software will remap the screenshots and automatically generate an absolute different glitch art.
How to create glitch, pixelate art?
This workflow takes advantage of the bug in Adobe Illustrator. It only works with iPhone screenshots.
1. CAPTURE
Use an iPhone to take a picture, then screenshot the picture again to generate a png file. Transfer the png screenshot to Mac using Airdrop.
2. PIXELATE
Open the png screenshot in Adobe Illustrator. The software will fail to covert correct color data, thus it generates a glitch image. You can find the deep insight of the iPhone png screenshot here:
3. EXPORT
Export and save the glitch art as any file formate (.png, .jpg, .tif....)
The ambiguous space between the human-machine relationship, and the hierarchy change of technology and its observers, operators, and creators, overlap my ideology of animism from Asia culture, where people believe all creatures are endowed with souls, no matter what they are living being or machines. Without applying any effect or filter to those images, in other words, no human decision about designing glitchy patterns, this practice demonstrates the potential of producing artistic images through a critical observation on computers while questioning the artist's agency of creating artworks using supermatic technology. What triggers Adobe Illustrator to generate glitch images is still unknown. Could this insanity be considered the awakening of the consciousness of my MacBook?
