I have just added a page on databending to the blog. It’s an outline for a workshop that uses an image editor, a text editor, a hex editor, and an audio editor for glitching image files. You can find it at http://paulhertz.net/factory/databending/. It’s very new, and will undoubtedly have some edits and additions.

<video id="example_video_id_1870018795" class="video-js vjs-default-skin" width="480" height="264">

</video>
<!-- End Video.js -->

SPAMM Cupcake is an online show of new media art curated by Ellectra Radikal and Systaime Alias Michaël Borras that was streamed live for the week of Feb. 28–Mar 5, 2013, to a storefront at the corner of Bowery and Kenmare streets in Manhattan, at the invitation of Mark Brown. Ellectra instigated a few months of conversation on FaceBook and eventually some 50 artists participated. The video for my work Snapper is shown here (thanks to Steve Stoppert for the videos, and to Dafna Ganani for making them available on FB). You can find the original animated GIF on the SPAMM Cupcake site, of course, and in my portfolio page of GIFs. Snapper is a work in my recent series on glitch and social memory. Some still images can be viewed on my Glitch Nation page. SPAMM Cupcake has several sites on Facebook, including its group page, the New York City event page and a new page documenting Cupcake.

The events and documents and chats have been flowing so furiously I have barely had time to check out all the works at SPAMM Cupcake. I’m posting this as a way of gathering the documentation and declaring my intention to be a less involved with FB commentary about the show and more involved in experiencing the work in the show.

In creating my new portfolio pages, I have relied on other people’s code. I’ve already mentioned the Photobox jQuery image gallery, which drives the slideshows on the new pages. From multiple sources, I figured out a better way of using CSS to create navigation menus than what I’ve been doing before. The core idea is that the link to the current page should show up in the navigation menu but should not be active. Typically, you’ll want to either pull it out visually, to flag the page you are on, or dull it it down, to indicate that it is not available to be clicked. Ideally, the cursor should not change to the active pointing finger over the inactive link.

I relied on multiple classes before, and had to do lots of markup editing. By adding some jQuery code to the CSS, you can get the menu working with minimal fuss.

CSS:

#navmenu a {
   color: #90c7fe;
   text-decoration: none;
}
#navmenu a:hover {
   text-decoration: underline;
   color: #fe596e;
}
#navmenu {
   color: #838390;
   padding-left: 1.5em;
   padding-top: 0.5em;
   font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
   font-size: 0.8em;
}
#navmenu a.current-page {
   color: #fedc7b;
   text-decoration: none;
   pointer-events: none;
   cursor: default;
}

JavaScript (jQuery)

$('a.current-page').click(function() { return false; });

The JavaScript should be included either on a page load or at the end of the page, just before the <body/> tag. To use the markup, just enter something like this:

<div id="navmenu">  
<a href="glitchez.html">Glitch Nation</a> | 
<a href="gifz.html">GIFs</a> | 
<a href="datascapez.html" class="current-page">Datascapes</a> | 
<a href="birdz.html">Ornithology Suite</a> | 
<a href="studiez.html">Field Studies</a> | 
<a href="treez.html">Tree Scrolls</a> | 
<a href="noiz.html">Blue Noise</a>      
</div>

The key to it all is shifting the “current-page” class to the navigation link for whatever page you are on. The CSS takes care of the appearance of the disabled link and the JavaScript disables the cursor response. The code may not work in IE (but what did you expect?). Of course, you’ll have to include jQuery, probably with something like this in the header:

<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

We are currently adding some new portfolio pages, starting with selections from Paul Hertz’s recent glitch works, Glitch Nation and Datascapes and Noisefields. We’re using some elegant code from Yair Even Or, a jQuery plug-in called Photobox, to provide a zoomable slide show of images. We will add new portfolios of work from Paul Hertz, Alma de la Serra and Darrell Luce, and possibly even from our mentor, J.T. Pescador, as time goes on.

Update: there’s a whole series of new portfolio pages, with a navigation menu: Glitch Nation, GIFs, Datascapes, Ornithology Suite, Field Studies, Tree Scrolls, Blue Noise.

The Mary and Leigh Block Museum, home to a notable collection of digital prints, has acquired a print of Ponente, a recent algorithmic work by Paul Hertz. Ponente is one of the Sampling Patterns series of works exploring blue noise. Ponente is constructed from multiple layers of blue noise in varying scales and densities, altered by low frequency waves and coloring rules.

Ponente, 2011, archival inkjet print, 18 x 29 in.

In January 2013 the Addison Gallery of American Art acquired the new edition of Paul Hertz’s suite of digital prints Deadpan, or, the Holy Toast. Printed at 16.2 x 14 inches on 22 x 17 inch Hahnemühle Photo Rag Paper in a limited edition of 5 portfolios plus one artist’s proof portfolio, this new edition reveals the full detail and complexity of the images. Individual prints  in a slightly smaller size, 15 x 13 inches, are available in an edition of 13. Please use our contact form for inquiries.

The master printer and Galapagos print

Animated GIF, an experiment to see if it works better in WordPress than in Flickr. Seems it does. Takes a while to load, be patient. Click image to see full size. This is a remix and glitch of a work by Tiziano Vecellio, the Venetian master, reproduced in Wikimedia.

Remix and glitch of a work by Tiziano. Click to view full image.

GlitchSort2 is a Processing application that uses interrupted pixel-sorting to create glitchy images. Since it has found an audience among glitch artists, I’m setting up this page as a point from which to download a current version and reference materials, as these become available. I’ll also post news or links to news about GlitchSort2 here.

In version 1.0b4, released on August 1, 2012, there are four different sorting algorithms, each of which has a different behavior that can be used to affect images in different ways. Images larger than your screen can be panned by dragging with the mouse or fit to the screen dimensions for display. I’ve added a “munge” feature that does glitchy compositing, and a “degrade” command that uses JPEG compression to degrade an image. See the reference for details.

I released an update, GlitchSort version 01b5, on August 23, 2012 and  renamed the app to “GlitchSort.” Version 01b5 provided a new sorting tool that operates on zigzag-scanned blocks of pixels using any of the available algorithms, and a color quantizing tool, but did not update the manual.

I discussed GlitchSort version 1.0b7 pre-release on December 7, at a Share Session at GLi.TC/H. I have now added some new features and skipped ahead to the next version.

GlitchSort 1.0b9, for Processing 1.5.1, is now available: GlitchSort_v01b9. There are bundled applications for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux: YMMV as far as running these. If you have Java installed, they should run, but I have only tested them on MacOS. The bundled documentation is for version 0.1b8, but I describe new features below and in the source code.  Here is a higher resolution version of the manual (33M PDF) with much better image quality. The print version (60M PDF) offers the highest resolution, for printing. Note that GlitchSort requires ControlP5 1.5.2, which is not bundled with the Processing application (it is bundled with the standalone applications).

Version 1.0b8a fixed the denoise command to handle edge and corner pixels correctly, and changed the ‘_’ (underscore) hack to repeat the last command four times, with a 90 degree rotation between executions, when last command is in “gl<>9kjdGLKJD”.

Version 1.0b9 revises the zigzag sorting by providing check boxes to set zigzag sorting to random angles, aligned angles,  or angles permuted in blocks of four. Formerly, the diagonals were always aligned. The default now is random angles (much better, I think!). This version also adds the scaledLowPass method, a low pass filter each RGB channel with a different FFT block size (64, 32, 16) for each channel. The component order depends on current Component Sorting Order setting, when the RGB channels are used. If you are using HSB channels, a random RGB order will be selected.  Currently this command is only triggered by the ‘)’ (right parenthesis) key command. It works best when pixel dimension are multiples of 64. After it executes, you can immediately use the statistical FFT command (‘k’) to sharpen the image. Amazingly, most of the detail that was lost with the low pass filtering will be restored by the default statistical FFT setting (set by the command to operate on 16 x 16 pixel blocks). The command takes time to execute because it’s really a long series of commands bundled together. It was an experiment that proved very rich in the variety of images it could create. Here’s an example. There are also many minor fixes, the most obvious one of which is that you can now drag images bigger than the window without using the shift key.

Since version 1.0b7, a substantial update, GlitchSort has supported Fast Fourier Transforms on images. It also saves JPEGs using current Java libraries, instead of the deprecated com.sun.image.codec.jpeg. Version 1.0b8 fixes a bug in the audify command, and adds a “denoise” filter and spatial shifting of color channels: that was enough to justify the new version number.

Because of an unresolved memory leak in the PImage image cache in Processing 2.0b7, I released GlitchSort for Processing 1.5.1. Apparently the problem persists in Processing 2.0b8, so GlitchSort still works in Processing 1.5.1.

Online reference manual can be viewed here (1.6M PDF). Download or view the optimized high resolution version (33M PDF) here. Very high resolution print version (61.5M PDF) here.

My own images created with GlitchSort2 can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ignotus/sets/72157629445337238/.

GlitchSort2 Manual Cover

Hasn’t been as active on my journal for a while. Work begins to become more standardized and there are less things to write about that are particularly different.

There were several new printing techniques introduced.

-Marginless printing: We put a very high quality Japanese paper over another larger cheaper paper and feeded the large paper in. The image to print was slightly bigger than the small paper and we were therefore able to print with absolutely no margins.

-Large Size paper printing: Not particularly different from small paper except that we have to keep an eye on it and worry about gravity deforming the paper or causing friction. You do however have to make the distance from the printer further from the paper in the settings, since large sized paper is often much thicker and you don’t want the nozzles touching the paper.

In addition to these new printing methods, Paul recieved recyclable printer cartridges that we switched out. We filled in new ink for the cartridges, replaced the inks, and then made new sets of calibrated proofs for the new inks. Paul said that the new ink is supposed to be identical to the previous ink, but he wanted to be extra careful.

The prints that Paul and I printed are also now featured at an exhibition. I about the process of framing and helped framed, transport, and put up a lot of the pieces. You can find better information about the exhibition in Paul’s blog than what I can say about it.

On the programming side there were a lot of issues with Java / Web connections that have finally been solved. Apparently you have to sign a Java applet before it can connect to a database due to security issues. Ironically we decided the best way was not to have Java make a connection anyways and connect through making a connection via a web page. We also started replacing the formatting with the original formatting from the Django sketches that were made.

The main requirements for the website are mostly done and Paul believes that we should try to get in touch with Jon Cates again to decide when we can ship the website as a pilot site. This is both to progress the website and also attract potential funding from art grants or kick-starter.

Before we shift the pilot site there are still some major things left to do that I hope we’ll manage to finish soon:

High

-Allow edit to update database
-fix broken links to images

Medium

-Delete media from user page
-Homepage blog
-Encrypt Invitation code
-Clear HTML formating during edit
-Design point system
-Fix header and footer padding
-Add “your invitation was sent” message after sending invite, and “send another message”

contact form
notice button

Low
-noticed by (BF higher up artists, blink tag for Paul Jon)
-Statement and proposal fields for artists (bio 500 chars)
-allow snapshots for remix application
-make voronoi application
-show people you’ve invited

-Edit about in profile
-Delete uploaded Media
-Debug search (needs to be clicked twice right now)

Maybe
-video frames parser
-Css formatting

Video TurtleBoids Demo Applet

The Video TurtleBoids Demo Applet is a Processing applet that captures video, derives optical flow vectors from it, and then uses the vectors to change the velocity of a flock of “boids” that can also draw lines (i.e., behave like Logo turtles). You will need the IgnoCodeLib library (the .jar file is included in the Code directory) and the ControlP5 library (not included, available for download at http://www.sojamo.de/libraries/controlP5/)

Based on Flocking, by Daniel Shiffman, in The Nature of Code, a demonstration of Craig Reynolds’ steering behaviors (see also http://www.red3d.com/cwr/). Also adapts code from Optical Flow by Hidetoshi Shimodaira from http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/10435.

Download the VideoBoidsDemo. It will not run in a browser, and it does require a video input to function.