#formatdecay

[laramzp]

codec translation (2023)

This is what it looks like when a file starts to haunt itself.

The image above documents an experiment in format decay and digital translation, an attempt to process and reprocess a video file across multiple conversions until the digital body starts to show signs of wear.

Each iteration distorts something:

The first file (MP4) maintains high resolution but carries embedded metadata from its conversion site.

The MPEG versions shift in size, reinterpreting color profiles and frame dimensions, making the image softer, blurrier, almost smudged by time.

The GIF, arguably the most archival format of them all, flattens motion into loops, trapping the ghost in a limbo.

The background, a default desktop wallpaper, remains untouched and acts as a hyperreal landscape against which the ghost repeats and degrades.

At what point does a file stop being a file and start being an apparition?