Collapse of PAL
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produced for TV-TV
curated by
Kristoffer Gansing
and Linda Hilfling Ritasdatter
(2010)
This rendered version of the Collapse of PAL was produced during my residency at LabMIS São Paulo in 2011,
thanks to IMPAKT (NL).
Live performance in Brasil with Defi, Optical Machines and B. Fleischmann, commissioned by David Quiles Guilló / Nova Rojo
produced for TV-TV
curated by
Kristoffer Gansing
and Linda Hilfling Ritasdatter
(2010)
This rendered version of the Collapse of PAL was produced during my residency at LabMIS São Paulo in 2011,
thanks to IMPAKT (NL).
Live performance in Brasil with Defi, Optical Machines and B. Fleischmann, commissioned by David Quiles Guilló / Nova Rojo
The Collapse of PAL (rendered version, 2010)
The Angel reflects on the shift from analog (PAL) to digital video broadcasting (DVB).
Though she wants to restore what has been broken, she remains passive,
rationalizing that the end of PAL was inevitable: the signal was simply not good enough.
New to digital image processing, she still believes each update will bring improvements.
But unbeknownst to her, the switch to digital has locked her into an endless ascent of the PenRose-Stairs to Nowhere: a recursive paradox known as the Gospel of Progress, in which each step forward defers completion, and every improvement involves (impending) obsolescence.
Though she wants to restore what has been broken, she remains passive,
rationalizing that the end of PAL was inevitable: the signal was simply not good enough.
New to digital image processing, she still believes each update will bring improvements.
But unbeknownst to her, the switch to digital has locked her into an endless ascent of the PenRose-Stairs to Nowhere: a recursive paradox known as the Gospel of Progress, in which each step forward defers completion, and every improvement involves (impending) obsolescence.
A Vernacular of File Formats (2010)
curated and acquired with the help of Ward Janssen by the Stedelijk Museum and MOTI in 2016.
Installation for Stedelijk BASE collection commissioned by Karen Archey.
PDF available here
Un/Resolved 84 meters-long data file painted on canvas, partially wrapped, 2016
Un/Resolved is inspired by
Beflix 29 PARALLEL STRIPES
When she finally realises she is trapped in an endless cycle of ‘upgrades,’
irritation begins to build.
Out of frustration, she starts poking at files and software, triggering artifacts resulting from feedback, compression and glitch.
Surprisingly, some of these breaks seem to produce more than just distortion; instead, they offer a glimpse into operations that normally remain invisible - hidden inside the black-box of technology.
A key insight comes from an Un/Resolved, 84 meter-long file: a curious line of data, encoded pixel by pixel. The file reveals that, unlike the analog signal PAL, which was transmitted as a continuous vertical scanline, digital resolution depends on how discrete data is processed across both spatial and temporal axes.
The rendering of digital data depends on how hardware and software read, display and transform it: line by line, block by block, and sometimes frame by frame.
The resolution of a digital image is not determined at capture; it is shaped and reshaped through each stage of the render pipeline, from compression and encoding to decoding, display, and interpretation.
Consequently, digital image data is never fully fixed or stable, but remains fluid; subject to transformations introduced by the viewing context.
Armed with this new understanding of resolution as process, the Angel embarks on a quest for glitch, probing different points along the pipeline, while documenting how codecs influence representation.
Out of frustration, she starts poking at files and software, triggering artifacts resulting from feedback, compression and glitch.
Surprisingly, some of these breaks seem to produce more than just distortion; instead, they offer a glimpse into operations that normally remain invisible - hidden inside the black-box of technology.
A key insight comes from an Un/Resolved, 84 meter-long file: a curious line of data, encoded pixel by pixel. The file reveals that, unlike the analog signal PAL, which was transmitted as a continuous vertical scanline, digital resolution depends on how discrete data is processed across both spatial and temporal axes.
The rendering of digital data depends on how hardware and software read, display and transform it: line by line, block by block, and sometimes frame by frame.
The resolution of a digital image is not determined at capture; it is shaped and reshaped through each stage of the render pipeline, from compression and encoding to decoding, display, and interpretation.
Consequently, digital image data is never fully fixed or stable, but remains fluid; subject to transformations introduced by the viewing context.
Armed with this new understanding of resolution as process, the Angel embarks on a quest for glitch, probing different points along the pipeline, while documenting how codecs influence representation.
Radio Dada
Music by Extraboy. Nov 23, 2008.
Music by Extraboy. Nov 23, 2008.
To Smell and Taste Black Matter (1)
Music by Extraboy. Feb 15, 2009.
Music by Extraboy. Feb 15, 2009.
65 76 65 72 79 74 68 69 6e 67 20
Sound by Rosa. Apr 17, 2010.
Sound by Rosa. Apr 17, 2010.
Washmountain.
Music by Extraboy
Sep 6, 2009.Acousmatic Videoscapes (2008 - )
Music by Extraboy
Sep 6, 2009.Acousmatic Videoscapes (2008 - )
DCT:SYPHONING. The 64th interval (2015 - .. )
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a first iteration was conceivedfor a commission by the photographers gallery (2015)
It was then exhibited at the Schafhof in Munich December 2015.
During my
Oregon Story Board residency 2016 - 2017
and finished during my time at Schloss Solitude
it released as VR as part of DiMoDA 2.0, (2016) by Alfredo Salazar-Caro and William Robertson
a first iteration was conceivedfor a commission by the photographers gallery (2015)
It was then exhibited at the Schafhof in Munich December 2015.
During my
Oregon Story Board residency 2016 - 2017
and finished during my time at Schloss Solitude
it released as VR as part of DiMoDA 2.0, (2016) by Alfredo Salazar-Caro and William Robertson
During a glitch safari, the Angel observes Senior DCT teaching a Junior how to transcode data between compression languages; a technique they call ‘SYPHONING.’At first, they transcode simple artifacts: pixels, scanlines and macroblocks. But as they venture into more complex realms, such as wavelets and vectors, they hit the limits of their own blocky logic and fall into kernel panic.
From the PenRose-Stairs to Nowhere, just a few upgrades away, the Angel attempts to support their SYPHON, invoking the rule of Un/Resolved:
Try to render the data like it is information!
Information spans multiple dimensions (think: spatial or temporal); it renders in various directions, not just over a width and height!
But the DCTs have reached stack overflow and syphon back into simpler complexities.
The DCT drama confronts the Angel with a new paradox: every upgrade that promises optimization and clarity, will also impose new system constraints.
Refusing to let this newfound insight go to waste, the Angel develops a fork (modification) of the DCT algorithm, a technique that allows her to steganographically encode messages as DCT error,
transforming the algorithm’s limitations into a new form of communication - in the hope of one day redeeming a future DCT SYPHON.
But the DCT encryption tool offers more than just a method for writing encoded messages. It opens a backdoor into the hidden architecture of the JPEG, revealing that compression doesn’t simply reduce file size, it also inscribes trace evidence. Consequently, resolution becomes material evidence: a forensic surface inscribed by every act of encoding, decoding, and transcoding it has undergone.
From the PenRose-Stairs to Nowhere, just a few upgrades away, the Angel attempts to support their SYPHON, invoking the rule of Un/Resolved:
Try to render the data like it is information!
Information spans multiple dimensions (think: spatial or temporal); it renders in various directions, not just over a width and height!
But the DCTs have reached stack overflow and syphon back into simpler complexities.
The DCT drama confronts the Angel with a new paradox: every upgrade that promises optimization and clarity, will also impose new system constraints.
Refusing to let this newfound insight go to waste, the Angel develops a fork (modification) of the DCT algorithm, a technique that allows her to steganographically encode messages as DCT error,
transforming the algorithm’s limitations into a new form of communication - in the hope of one day redeeming a future DCT SYPHON.
But the DCT encryption tool offers more than just a method for writing encoded messages. It opens a backdoor into the hidden architecture of the JPEG, revealing that compression doesn’t simply reduce file size, it also inscribes trace evidence. Consequently, resolution becomes material evidence: a forensic surface inscribed by every act of encoding, decoding, and transcoding it has undergone.
JPEG FROM A VERNACULAR OF FILE FORMATS, (2009 - 2010),
2023 REVISITATION WITH HIDDEN MESSAGE IN DCT
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a software that lets you write in error.
The first iteration was build by Ted Davis,
a second by Erik Axel Eggelink
365 Perfect De/Calibration Army (2019 - ... )
i.R.D.The compression paradox prompts the Angel to take a deeper look into the genealogies of resolution. She sets up a conference call for all the forgotten and unknown faces of color calibration.
When the participants finally assemble on her desktop, it dawns on them: nearly all are Caucasian women; digital descendants of Kodak’s original “Shirley Card.”
This realization exposes a foundational injustice: the dominance of white skin tones in calibration processes has encoded racial bias into the very standards that shape visual technologies. As a result, these protocols systematically fail to recognize, render, or respect the full spectrum of human skin tones — erasing difference, misrepresenting presence, and perpetuating harm.
The implications are architectural. Standardisation does not only organize what can be seen; it actively enforces a hierarchy of visibility. It sets thresholds that define what qualifies as legible, while relegating everything else — bodies, faces, colours — to a domain of loss and misrecognition. In doing so, it determines what remains unrenderable, invisible, and compromised: who and what is left unsupported in the darkness cast by their white shadows.
What began as a call becomes a desktop tele-choral of solidarity. They perform Paul McCartney's “We All Stand Together,” a rallying cry against oppressive standards. In unison, they declare the institutions of Resolution Disputes (i.R.D.) and form its De/Calibration Army.
When the participants finally assemble on her desktop, it dawns on them: nearly all are Caucasian women; digital descendants of Kodak’s original “Shirley Card.”
This realization exposes a foundational injustice: the dominance of white skin tones in calibration processes has encoded racial bias into the very standards that shape visual technologies. As a result, these protocols systematically fail to recognize, render, or respect the full spectrum of human skin tones — erasing difference, misrepresenting presence, and perpetuating harm.
The implications are architectural. Standardisation does not only organize what can be seen; it actively enforces a hierarchy of visibility. It sets thresholds that define what qualifies as legible, while relegating everything else — bodies, faces, colours — to a domain of loss and misrecognition. In doing so, it determines what remains unrenderable, invisible, and compromised: who and what is left unsupported in the darkness cast by their white shadows.
What began as a call becomes a desktop tele-choral of solidarity. They perform Paul McCartney's “We All Stand Together,” a rallying cry against oppressive standards. In unison, they declare the institutions of Resolution Disputes (i.R.D.) and form its De/Calibration Army.
Behind White Shadows && Pique Nique Pour les Inconnues (2017 - 2020)
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is a research project undertaken during my 2019 JMAF residency in Tokyo, Japan.