Manipulation of RAW Files
Last week's topic was the manipulation of raw files - the transformation of image data to audio data and then the modulation of those audio files via programs like Audacity. I want to show you in the following post what i mean with this and if you are already aware of this process, you can still get some inspiration of the following pictures i made.
The following image is the original version which i photographed in Athens. I went in Photoshop and saved it as a Photoshop RAW File or as a Bit Map. Good to know: If the picture has a high resolution, the audio file will get way longer/bigger cause of a lot more data to transform
The next step is to import that raw file/bit map into an audio-editor like Audacity and you get a waveform out of the image's data. You will probably hear white noise and high-frequency whirring. Now you can select sections of the waveform and manipulate it. You can get really creative and analyse how certain modulations affect the image when transformed back again. And as I just said, the last step is to export the waveform as raw file again. It's necessary to select the same encoding as when imported earlier.
The picture below has a manipulated waveform in the middle section, I reversed that part of the audio. You can also see the effects of echo and compression above the reversed part.
I further compressed the waveform with a lower threshold and added distortion.
To show you an example what can happen if you use the false encoding, I present you the next image. Although I made an error when transforming it back to visual data, I think it got its own esthetic.
The following picture was also taken in Athens and i played around with several effects as echo, distortion, compression and reverb. You can see that you can create unique pieces of art this way and I definitely want to dig deeper into that topic! I hope you enjoyed reading this entry and maybe you learnt something new or you got inspired. Cy
