Animated example of what a glitched video can look like by Michael Betancourt . (Mae Murray in a screen test) Glitch art is the practice of using digital or analog errors for aesthetic purposes by either corrupting digital data or physically manipulating electronic devices. Glitches appear in visual art such as the film A Colour Box (1935) by Len Lye, the video sculpture TV Magnet (1965) by Nam June Paik and more contemporary work such as Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK Plasma Screen Burn (2007) by Cory Arcangel. Data manipulation (aka databending) changes the information inside the digital file to create glitches. Databending involves editing and changing the file data. There are a variety of tutorials explaining how to make these changes using programs such as HexFiend.Michael Betancourt, "An Easy 7-Step Protocol for Databending," Signal Culture Cookbook, 2014 Adam Woodall explains in his tutorial  Like all files, image files (.jpg .bmp .gif etc) are all made up of text. Unlike some other files, like .svg (vectors) or .html (web pages), when an image is opened in a text editor all that comes up is gobbldygook! Adam Woodall, "An introduction to databending ," FizzPop, May 15, 2009 Related processes such as datamoshing changes the data in a video or picture file. Datamoshing with software such as Avidemux is a common method for creating glitch art by manipulating different frame types in compressed digital video: " Datamoshing involves the removal of an encoded video’s I-frames (intra-coded picture, also known as key frames—a frame that does not require any information regarding another frame to be decoded), leaving only the P- (predicted picture) or B- (bi-predictive picture) frames. P-frames contain information predicting the changes in the image between the current frame and the previous one, and B-frames contain information predicting the image differences between the previous, current and subsequent frames. Because P- and B-frames use data from previous and forward frames, they are more compressed than I-Frames. "Zinman, Gregory (2015). ‘Getting Messy: Chance and Glitch in Contemporary Video Art,’ in Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, edited by Gabrielle Jennings. Oakland: University of California Press. This process of direct manipulation of the digital data is not restricted to files that only appear on digital screens. "3D model glitching" refers to the purposeful corruption of the code in 3D animation programs resulting in distorted and abstract images of 3D virtual worlds, models and even 3D printed objects. Misalignment Misalignment glitches are produced by opening a digital file of one type with a program designed for a different type of file, such as opening a video file as a sound file, or using the wrong codec to decompress a file. Tools commonly used to create glitches of this type include Audacity and WordPad. Artist Jamie Boulton explains the process and the glitches it produces, noting that these glitches depend on how Audacity handles files, even when they are not audio-encoded:  The easiest way to manipulate a file in Audacity is to select a section of the file and apply one of the built in sound effects to it. Now, I’m no computing whizz kid, but the way I see it, when you apply a sound effect to a sound file, the program takes that file and alters the file data in the manner which it’s been told will achieve that effect. So, for example, if you were to apply an echo effect then it would repeat parts of the file, diminishing the repetition after each iteration. The wonderful thing is that it will do this regardless of what the file actually is, Audacity doesn’t know or care whether the file is a sound or not, it will alter it in the manner instructed. Jamie Boulton, "Databending using Audacity Effects," Question Something, July 26, 2012 Physically beating the case of the game system would cause the game cartridge to pop out, interrupting the computer's operation. The glitches that resulted from this failure were a result of how the machine was set-up : There was ROM memory in the cartridge and ROM memory built into the console. Popping out the cartridge while executing code in the console ROM created garbage references in the stack frames and invalid pointers, which caused the strange patterns to be drawn. ... The Bally Astrocade was unique among cartridge games in that it was designed to allow users to change game cartridges with power-on. When pressing the reset button, it was possible to remove the cartridge from the system and induce various memory dump pattern sequences. Digital TV Dinner is a collection of these curious states of silicon epilepsy set to music composed and generated upon this same platform. Distortion was one of the earliest types of glitch art to be produced, such as in the work of video artist Nam June Paik, who created video distortions by placing powerful magnets in close proximity to the television screen, resulting in the appearance of abstract patterns. Paik's addition of physical interference to a TV set created new kinds of imagery that changed how the broadcast image was displayed:  The magnetic field interferes with the television’s electronic signals, distorting the broadcast image into an abstract form that changes when the magnet is moved. "Nam June Paik: TV Magnet," Whitney Museum of American Art, web description for accession number 86.60a-b
Animated example of what a glitched video can look like by Michael Betancourt (Mae Murray in a screen test) Glitch art is the practice of using digital or analog errors for aesthetic purposes by either corrupting digital data or physically manipulating electronic devices. Glitches appear in visual art such as the film A Colour Box (1935) by Len Lye, the video sculpture TV Magnet (1965) by Nam June Paik and more contemporary work such as Panasonic TH-42PWD8UK Plasma Screen Burn (2007) by Cory Arcangel. Data manipulation (aka databending) changes the information inside the digital file to create glitches. Databending involves editing and changing the file data. There are a variety of tutorials explaining how to make these changes using programs such as HexFiend.Michael Betancourt, "An Easy 7-Step Protocol for Databending," Signal Culture Cookbook, 2014 Adam Woodall explains in his tutorial :Adam Woodall, "An introduction to databending," FizzPop, May 15, 2009 Like all files, image files (.jpg .bmp .gif etc) are all made up of text. Unlike some other files, like .svg (vectors) or .html (web pages), when an image is opened in a text editor all that comes up is gobbldygook! Related processes such as datamoshing changes the data in a video or picture file. Datamoshing with software such as Avidemux is a common method for creating glitch art by manipulating different frame types in compressed digital video: Zinman, Gregory (2015). ‘Getting Messy: Chance and Glitch in Contemporary Video Art,’ in Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, edited by Gabrielle Jennings. Oakland: University of California Press. Datamoshing involves the removal of an encoded video’s I-frames (intra-coded picture, also known as key frames—a frame that does not require any information regarding another frame to be decoded), leaving only the P- (predicted picture) or B- (bi-predictive picture) frames. P-frames contain information predicting the changes in the image between the current frame and the previous one, and B-frames contain information predicting the image differences between the previous, current and subsequent frames. Because P- and B-frames use data from previous and forward frames, they are more compressed than I-Frames. This process of direct manipulation of the digital data is not restricted to files that only appear on digital screens. "3D model glitching" refers to the purposeful corruption of the code in 3D animation programs resulting in distorted and abstract images of 3D virtual worlds, models and even 3D printed objects. Misalignment Misalignment glitches are produced by opening a digital file of one type with a program designed for a different type of file, such as opening a video file as a sound file, or using the wrong codec to decompress a file. Tools commonly used to create glitches of this type include Audacity and WordPad. Artist Jamie Boulton explains the process and the glitches it produces, noting that these glitches depend on how Audacity handles files, even when they are not audio-encoded: Jamie Boulton, "Databending using Audacity Effects," Question Something, July 26, 2012 The easiest way to manipulate a file in Audacity is to select a section of the file and apply one of the built in sound effects to it. Now, I’m no computing whizz kid, but the way I see it, when you apply a sound effect to a sound file, the program takes that file and alters the file data in the manner which it’s been told will achieve that effect. So, for example, if you were to apply an echo effect then it would repeat parts of the file, diminishing the repetition after each iteration. The wonderful thing is that it will do this regardless of what the file actually is, Audacity doesn’t know or care whether the file is a sound or not, it will alter it in the manner instructed. Physically beating the case of the game system would cause the game cartridge to pop out, interrupting the computer's operation. The glitches that resulted from this failure were a result of how the machine was set up : There was ROM memory in the cartridge and ROM memory built into the console. Popping out the cartridge while executing code in the console ROM created garbage references in the stack frames and invalid pointers, which caused the strange patterns to be drawn. ... The Bally Astrocade was unique among cartridge games in that it was designed to allow users to change game cartridges with power-on. When pressing the reset button, it was possible to remove the cartridge from the system and induce various memory dump pattern sequences. Digital TV Dinner is a collection of these curious states of silicon epilepsy set to music composed and generated upon this same platform. Distortion was one of the earliest types of glitch art to be produced, such as in the work of video artist Nam June Paik, who created video distortions by placing powerful magnets in close proximity to the television screen, resulting in the appearance of abstract patterns. Paik's addition of physical interference to a TV set created new kinds of imagery that changed how the broadcast image was displayed: "Nam June Paik: TV Magnet," Whitney Museum of American Art, web description for accession number 86.60a-b The magnetic field interferes with the television’s electronic signals, distorting the broadcast image into an abstract form that changes when the magnet is moved. 
D
.
A
:Adam Woodall, "An introduction to databending," FizzPop, May 15, 2009
D
Adam Woodall, "An introduction to databending ," FizzPop, May 15, 2009
R
"
Zinman, Gregory (2015). ‘Getting Messy: Chance and Glitch in Contemporary Video Art,’ in Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, edited by Gabrielle Jennings. Oakland: University of California Press.
D
"Zinman, Gregory (2015). ‘Getting Messy: Chance and Glitch in Contemporary Video Art,’ in Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art, edited by Gabrielle Jennings. Oakland: University of California Press.
A
Jamie Boulton, "Databending using Audacity Effects," Question Something, July 26, 2012
D
Jamie Boulton, "Databending using Audacity Effects," Question Something, July 26, 2012
R
set-up
set up
A
"Nam June Paik: TV Magnet," Whitney Museum of American Art, web description for accession number 86.60a-b
D
"Nam June Paik: TV Magnet," Whitney Museum of American Art, web description for accession number 86.60a-b