Some experiments with a new Jpeg glitcher that a friend made for me which displays all the different components of the jpeg file! The work put into this software is astounding and is built using the full 180 page specs of the jpeg file format. I owe alot to this person! I hope to pass it on to the glitch community in the next week so links will be posted up here and on twitter. Hopefully with feedback the software can be used to come up with some new interesting artwork and also evolve into something beyond what it is now. The programmer really wants people to give feedback,questions and suggestions. He has 1000's of ideas but just needs people to give him a reason to pursue them.

A PNG corruption with some post-messing-around in the aul' photoshop. Hopefully PNG corruption becomes easier as the year progresses because it can store alpha channels within its files which could lead to very interesting imagery.

 Some experiments corrupting Jpeg images! Thank you Ted Davis for the help understanding jpeg corruption
Check out HEADer_REMIX at http://www.teddavis.org/

A new interest of mine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JQOplz9MS8&feature=related

A mod of the game shadow of the colossus by "wwwarea" that I think is absolutely fantastic. I love seeing a mythical cult-hit video game's ripped open with it's digital side shown to the world. Shadow of the colossus contained a huge amount of supernatural content with fantastical giant creatures that you would compare to the greek Titans so it is nice that the coding and modelling that went into this digital world can be seen alongside this great content.

Took some tinkering but it's done

My latest work. I got the majority of this piece done last month however I couldn't find the right things to make the composition work and along with other projects/ jobs I had to put this to the side. But now here it is. All done ( I think)
The character at the centre of this image is stepping out of the chaos/complexity below and reaching out to a digital treasure with a companion avatar looking on. The 2 figures at the top I consider gaurdians/ minor deities who protect this object and also have an authority over this cyber world. I also see them as part of a hieararchy of digital deities.
So anyway too many words can kill something enjoyable. Please look and just enjoy looking.

I think I will be moving away from this background colour with my future works. I'm still at the early stages so there's still lots to explore!

An old experiment with printers

(-The finished album cover ^ )
The glitched artwork I'm making at the moment falls under the general heading of obsolete technology experiments and realising this I thought I'd pop up 2 album covers I created for a trad band in donegal a looong time ago.

I made them during my second year of college and I'm quite proud of both of them (however the green cover was turned down) I created the images by making a quick layout on photoshop and then printing them out.
It was at this point I had my fun; getting hands on with the printed image (scratching, damaging and using the mistakes). At the time I was using an inkjet printer on some glossy photographic paper which doesn't absorb the ink very fast so before the ink had a chance to dry I rubbed, stroked and scratched the surface to get some odd distortions. The black inks were absorbed almost instantly and I was never able to move them much however the CMY colours were free as a bird!
After this I turned to my family scanner and popped my images back into the computer for a re-touchin' and a fiddlin'. The experiment made good use of the printers specific properties and gave me an image that would be hard to recreate in another medium. So I was happy. It was fun to use the printer for representation rather than just a tool for perfect replication.

(-The first try ^)


After the first design was turned down and I was starting work for the second version I noticed my printer was running low on ink during the week. I really liked where the different inks were cutting out during printing and figured it'd be a good next step for experimenting. It left strange marks and patterns on the print and had a bit of unpredictability so I was excited. It took a few trys but I ended up settling on two images which I then scanned in and combined in photoshop. Insert colour adjustment, typography.. double-check composition.. well Bada-bing Bada-Boom Its done! :D And I have an album cover for a Donegal trad band!

Photos from Maidstone exhibition

Some photos have emerged from my exhibition with UCA Maidstone's illustration course last June. The time spent at that course had a monumental effect on my work. It made me want to pursue an art career again(a drive which was slowly eroded over the last few years) and get all excited-and-such about the future . Also the tutors there were absolutely perfect people as well, professionally + personally. Especially Neil Breeden and Emily Mitchell. I owe them alot.

Experimenting with more corruption

A new step in my experiments with corruption! It's been a bit of a struggle but I've managed to progress that little bit more with my know-how of glitching. Enough that it's worthy of blogging. I'd like to thank the wonderful people on the TOG mailing list for providing me with the advice and links for my !!knowledge quest!!. I had hoped to provide you with a finished piece of artwork but my central work hasn't been going as planned.
Hopefully these images will be enough. The photo featured belongs to Anaelle Steiner. An amazing analogue photographer who has a passion for found photography.
The image featured is from a stereoscopic collection that she has had in her possession for a long time. We are currently working on a collaborative project together using these images and I hope in the next month or so I will be able to show you the fruits of our labour.

Experimenting with new type of corruption

Expanding, broadening, diversifying etc. I am trying out new corruption which will give me huge new possibilities for expression. The image here was created by corrupting a png file. Good tip: if your corruption wont open in regular photo viewers try microsoft paint or download Irfanviewer

A sort of preview

The characters in this picture are on 2 different sides of the glitch boundary. This will be used hopefully as part of a bigger and more final illustration. So stay tuned

some screen grabs from Maya.

The bars of glitching really divide the canvas. A dangerous thing for compositions but the effects can be great at times

Photo corruption using sonification. I love the luminosity of my glitched images. That POP! colour is something that can only be experienced on a screen so hopefully one day I'll acquire some thin A2 screens that I could use to display my work.

A unique property of 3d models is that they can pass through one another with no resistance. They're virtual bodies that aren't limited by the electro-magnetic force. An incredibly odd existence if they were to be given an awareness aswell. Maybe we should have a 3d modelling modernism where everything is overlayed and passing through everything else. A digital cubism!

http://www.adobemuseum.com/index.php

A fascinating talk by John Maeda about new media art. A wonderful video that considers humans as living in two worlds simultaneously; the digital and physical. Maeda equates the bit to the atom and suggests ways we should be approaching new digital art.

Corruption at a high amount like this image pushes the viewer to look closer and find the shapes and bodies within the mess. Corruption for me represents the complexity of the computer beyond the streamlined and glossy desktop interface. John Maeda aswell as A.Michael Noll really changed my perceptions of the computer and made me realise I always considered the rectangular desktop and its pixels as the computer but they are only a representation of a complex thinking machine. Imagine a computer with no screen, just a keyboard, and it becomes far more mysterious.

Corruption really draws attention to the process. Like scratches and distortion on an analogue photo.

Using sonification I corrupted a tif file that had been created using Autodesk Maya. I think I may have invented the longest and most drawn out way of creating a 2d image. However the imagery is really enjoyable to me and is made even more special by the fact that corruption is a random to semi-random process so colours and compositions are an unpredictable thing.
Always remember to change the byte order of your Tif images from (rgbrgb) to (rrggbb) and NO COMPRESSION.

My first post

This blog is for documenting my artwork.

My artwork is about spiritualising the modern digital environment. Many of the primitive ideas concerning the supernatural such as flying, great speed and long life have been achieved through modern technology. I feel the new digital environments are a realisation of the tribal concept of the spirit world; an alternate dimension for people to engage and interact with other human beings as well as alien forces.

In my theory work I am looking into different ways of perceiving the computer and moving past its associations with convenience and leisure. This will all be part of my final year of college at NCAD so here's to getting a good start!
My first image: