Xvid is a primary competitor of the proprietary DivX Pro Codec (note that Xvid is DivX spelled backwards), which is often used for speedy online video distribution through peer-to-peer networks. In 2005, Sven König embarked on his exploration into the politics of file standards, through this particular datamoshing effect, and in relation to the free codec Xvid. This makes the video morph in unexpected colours and forms. The outcome of this deletion is the visualisation of the indexed movement of macroblocks, smearing over the surface of an old keyframe. The artifact caused by compression is stable and reproducible, as it is the effective outcome of keyframes being deleted.
The datamosh artifact is located in a realm where compression artifacts and glitch artifacts collide. One case study of a compression artifact, referred to as ‘datamoshing’, tells an especially interesting account of glitch cultivation. 21)Īs the popularization and cultivation of glitch artifacts is spreading, it is interesting to track the development of these processes in specific case studies. Douglas Kahn, Noise Water Meat: 1999 (p. “We already know too much for noise to exist”