How is databending similar to or different from other artmaking processes you are more familiar with?
It definitely is significantly different from what I am used to. I’m a physical art type of person; digital anything is not my forte. I’m used to controlling what the outcome will be for the most part, whereas with this, I had zero control. I didn’t know what part of what text affected what portion of the photo, therefore the entire process was kind of like a gamble: sometimes the outcome was wildly amazing and sometimes there was barely any change at all.
What did you learn? Describe your learning process.
This whole project was a learning experience for me; I didn’t know how to do a single thing prior to the class. But overall I learned through experimentation what change would result in what outcome. I learned that text and replace would result in rainbow-esque lines and deleting chunks of text resulted in gray lines. Overall it was really fun to see what the outcomes were.
What was most challenging?
Not having control of what I was doing was definitely challenging
What was most fun?
Even though I mentioned that not having control was a challenge, it was probably the most fun part. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a gamble.
How did this activity connect (or not) to your prior knowledge of art and art education?
It did not connect to my prior knowledge of art education because I never worked digitally in my life ever; seeing something in code is beyond foreign to me.
How might you use and/or adapt this activity in an art classroom?
I really think this would be interesting to introduce to middle schoolers/high schoolers. At that time, a lot of them are finding who they are and what their aesthetics may be and this may be something that will spark their interest. It’s also a good way to learn about the digital world and also a new method of doing art. This will teach students that you will not always have control of your outcome, but either way it’ll look cool!