JPEG Crush

As social media platforms endlessly host and compress pictures of ourselves and our memories, it is in our interest to understand how these platforms treat our images. For the time of a workshop (roughly 40 minutes) we learn about how facebook compresses images, the politics of image compression, and finally how to make glitch art using the JPEG compression algorithm against itself.

length of workshop : 2-4 hours depending on students level
number of students : 10-30 depending on if school can provide teaching assistants
requirements : videoprojection display for the class and a computer for each student

As our lives continuously get transcribed into bits, our relationship with data keeps
changing; binding closer. The ability to control the usage of data, of information, is
in the interest of anyone who has pieces of themselves stored somewhere. JPEG Crush is
a workshop aimed to introduce the public to the flawed aspects of our visual society.
Demystifying compression technologies and reclaiming them by databending techniques is
the first step to understanding the digital spaces where our databodies sonder. From random
hex editing to specific markers of the jpeg format, the corruption case study will be set on
content uploaded to social media. Without prior experience required and an adapted content
depending on the audience’s responsiveness, every participant will leave with a glitch and
guidance towards further experimentation.