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About the work
A modern translation of the 1884 Edwin Abbott Abbott roman "Flatland",
explains some of the algorithms at work in digital image compression.
Inspired by Syphon, an open source software by Tom Butterworth and Anton
Marini, in DCT:SYPHONING, an anthropomorphised DCT (Senior) narrates its
first SYPHON (data transfer) together with DCT Junior, and their interactions
as they translate data from one image compression to a next (aka the “realms
of complexity”).
As Senior introduces Junior to the different levels of image plane complexity,
they move from the macroblocks (the realm in which they normally resonate),
to dither, lines and the more complex realms of wavelets and vectors. Junior
does not only react to old compressions technologies, but also the newer,
more complex ones which ‘scare' Junior, because of their 'illegibility'.
Medialab-Matadero Madrid