Experiment 8: Glitch Video / Degradation

Glitch Video (Digital)

This technique is again based on the glitch art technique and used the same basic approach to code editing and file manipulation. The video files (.mov) are opened as text/edit files, which transfers the digital video into code. The code can then be edited and manipulated via cut, copy and paste techniques. I was careful to ensure that the top and bottom of the code remained, but all attempts of code manipulation via this technique failed. I tried to get around this by opening the file into Final Cut Pro and exporting this as a .mov file, but this didn’t work. I repeated this in Adobe Premiere Pro, and again I was unsuccessful. I went back to the beginning and tried manipulating a tiny section of the code, saving it, and reopening it as a .mov file. I found the even the smallest interruption in the code made the file unreadable. I research this online, but found no possible way of making this technique work with video files, as any manipulation caused the video to instantly become unreadable. 

Via my research I came across a video gitching program called youglitch and fed my video into the program. The software comes with various presets that can be changed in order to create a glitch-like output. Whilst this was a short cut, I found that the outputs the program created were amazing and decided to use this instead of my original code-based technique.

(add videos)

I wanted to try another technique that I had seen online here - that datamoshes two videos together, simply by laying one video file on top of the other. This results in a moshing of the two videos along with the audio to create a new glitched audio/visual output. This is created by mixing the I and P frames together. Using the AVIDEMUX software allows you to change the frames (I and P). Here you can manipulate the frames of each video (changing I frames to P frames, and vice versa), which results in the overlapping output effect. This technique was extremely effective, creating a variety of unique glitch-like results.

I will be incorporating both techniques together and will be using them within visual part of my glitch orchestra. These will be fed into MaxMSP (Jitter) and they will receive further effects before they are outputted via the digital projector. I was surprised at how much the sound output was manipulated during this technique, and have decided to incorporate the sounds, as the results are simply too interested to ignore. Again, these will be fed into MaxMSP (audio) and will be further glitched and replayed via speakers.

Video Degradation

This technique works by manipulating the analogue format of VHS by continually recording onto the same tape over and over again. Using a combined portable TV/Video player and a VHS camera I recorded onto the Video tape ten times in order to achieve a wearing of the tape – video degradation. By copying from one tape to another over and over again caused the tape to wear and eventually to image begins to fade, distort and glitch. Whilst this approach was time consuming, it was extremely easy to set up and execute (even though it required a number of wires). The only issue was getting the analogue video onto a digital format. I found that I didn’t have the required equipment to transfer the VHS to digital, and instead decided to improvise by recording the VHS screen via a digital recording source, in order to create a new digital version. Initially, I was worried that this would affect the quality, but as the whole point of the experiment is to create a faded and worn version of the original, it didn’t really matter. Both the sounds and the visuals were equally affected by this approach, which was certainly a bonus. It wasn’t until the 4^th recording that the video began to fully deteriorate. I was careful to ensure that I didn’t record over and over again, as I was worried that the tape would eventually snap under the constant strain.

This is certainly a technique that I intend to use in my final project. Instead of transferring the video to digital, I intend to keep the VHS in its original format, and will instead play it the recorded tape on the unit I used during the recording process. My only concern is that looping the tape and playing it as part of the glitch orchestra may cause the tape to snap. This is something that I will need to test, as playback should not place as much strain on the tape as the recording process.