Lens-Artists Challenge # 338: Pick A Word (Audacity)

Lens-Artists Challenge # 338: Pick A Word (Audacity)

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to submit anything for the Lens-Artists Challenge this week. I've been laid up with an infection, and for the past few days have been awash with antibiotics. So when John from Journeys By Johnbo posted his theme for the week, 'Pick A Word' (https://photobyjohnbo.com/2025/03/01/lens-artists-challenge-338-pick-a-word/), I was in two minds whether to get involved or just lay back in bed and feel sorry for myself.

And then a comment (https://wp.me/p2lPc-3es%23comment-913) by Sofia of Photographias on my Challenge entry for her theme, 'Bold', got me thinking. 'I'm surprised you don't consider yourself bold, Keith', she said. Your posts are always outside the box,' to which I replied (with a knowing wink emoji), 'I consider myself more cheeky than bold'. And there I had my word for John’s Challenge: Audacity.

Defined as 'bold or arrogant disregard of normal restraints' by the Merriam Webster dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/audacity), I always think of its synonym, 'cheek' as a lighter, almost playful version of that. But Audacity is also the name of a well-known piece of free audio editing software, and I can definitely have fun with that. Wait a moment, I hear you ask, if Audacity is an audio editor how can you use that in a photography Challenge? And here is the magic word, 'databending'.

According to Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databending), databending is, 'the process of manipulating a ... file of a certain format, using software designed to edit files of another format. Distortions in the medium typically occur as a result'. What this suggests is that we can take our lovely, high resolution image file and stuff it into a program that it's not meant to be used with, and that program will corrupt it. And that's exactly what happens. But it's also an entry into the wonderful world of glitch art. Databending is probably the easiest and cheapest way to get into glitch art. You don't  need any specialist equipment or applications, mostly everyone has a computer around the house, and the software applications are often open source and free. (There are even 'apps' that will do the same thing, but where's the challenge and unpredictability in that?)

Of course, it's not as simple as loading a JPG file into Audacity, there has to be a little preparation first. But the results can be well worth it. With these examples, I took JPG image files and converted them into uncompressed tiff files. These were then imported into Audacity as 'raw data' and various sound effects filters applied. To see the effect of Audacity on the images you then have to export the .raw file and rename it back as a .tif file. For a more detailed explanation of the process, Antonio Roberts of hellocatfood, has a great blog post (https://www.hellocatfood.com/databending-using-audacity/) of the procedure. Although he used bitmap files and not tiff files, the same method applies. 

As I mentioned,  it can be unpredictable and you can't see what happens until you've processed and recreated the image file. Sometimes the effect can be subtle, at other times the image can be unrecognisable. You can use multiple effects on the same image or, as I did here, just use one. For the record, here's an image 'databent' with the GlitchLab app. I really had this effect, which is called pixel-sorting, in mind when I saw this image but couldn't recreate it in Audacity. 

Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here (https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/), and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag 'Lens-Artists'.

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