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？"
The Cloud
Nov 8, 2019 at 19:14
The Body
Jan 7, 2019 at 14:32
The Hill
Nov 8, 2019 at 19:14
The Crown
Nov 8, 2019 at 19:14
Portrait #1
Nov 8, 2019 at 19:14
Portrait #2
Nov 8, 2019 at 19:14
Above glitch arts are from those images, can you recognize them?
The Body
The Cloud
The Hill
The Crown
Portrait #1
Portrait #2
Absdiff,
A ghost of computional 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.
1. CAPTURE
Use mobile phone to capture the photo on the screen of laptop. Get close to capture the pixelated pattern, then scrensshot this photo again.
2. PIXELATE
Open the screenshot in Adobe Illustrator.The software will automatically generate a glitch image.
3. EXPORT
Export and save the glitch art.
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 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. Whats trigger Adobe Illustrator to generate glitch images is still unknown. Could this insanity be considered the awakening of consciousness of my macbook?
"Could machine produces a ghost?"
ABOUT
Absdiff (Absulote Difference) is a independent project by Kiki Wu, a digital media artist whose practices focus on experimentally alter the behavioral patterns of utilizing multimedia and provide visual and aural triggers of emotional response from the audience through video art, sound design, and creative programming. Inspired by the metaphysic relationship to her family's memory, she has investigated the transformation of the cultural symbols across dimensions from physical space, virtual space to psychological matters since 2017. Her research interests include the national identity crisis, modern mythology, and internet culture.
Contact via e-mail: kikiwu404@gmail.com
EXHIBITION & PRESS
conX281
A group show at Hebert Sanders Gallery, SJSU, San Jose, US.Ranging across mediums from cast bronze, clay, and painting – to procedurally generated digital animation, pigments extracted from the California landscape, and Virtual Reality; the work in conX281 provides a glimpse into the practice of 10 (X) emerging artists beginning their career in the age of destabilized realities.