Glitch Art

The beauty of broken data. We find aesthetics in technological failure -- pixel corruption, signal interference, and the hidden structures revealed when digital systems malfunction. This is not an error. This is the message.

// 001 — Typography

Typeface Specimens

Glitch Art typography favors monospaced, technical, and geometric typefaces that reference code editors, terminal displays, and early computing. Display text is a surface for corruption -- body text prioritizes legibility.

Orbitron — 900 Display / Headlines
System Failure
Is the Message
0.75rem 1rem 1.5rem 2rem 3rem
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
VT323 — 400 Terminal / Retro Display
> SIGNAL_LOST: Reconnecting to corrupted data stream...
> WARNING: Frame buffer overflow detected at 0xFF00
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 !@#$%^&*()
Major Mono Display — 400 Abstract Headlines
data corruption
is revelation
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
Share Tech Mono — 400 Body / Technical Content

The glitch is not failure. It is the moment when a system reveals its true nature -- the hidden substrate of pixels, compression blocks, and encoding structures that normally remain invisible. When we datamosh a video stream or bend the bytes of an image file, we are not destroying information. We are liberating it from the tyranny of intended presentation.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 {}[]|<>/\
// 002 — Color Palette

Signal Channels

Drawn from the RGB color model itself -- the raw channels of digital displays -- combined with neon accents that evoke CRT phosphors, VHS artifacts, and corrupted data streams. Deep black backgrounds maximize luminosity.

Void Black
#0D0D0D
Primary background
Screen Dark
#1A1A2E
Surface / panels
Static Gray
#2A2A2A
Noise texture base
Channel Red
#FF0040
RGB red channel
Channel Green
#00FF41
Terminal / matrix accent
Channel Blue
#0080FF
RGB blue channel
Glitch Cyan
#00FFFF
Primary accent / links
Glitch Magenta
#FF00FF
Chromatic aberration
Corrupt Pink
#FF2E97
Hot accent / alerts
Signal Yellow
#F5F500
Warning / hover states
Artifact Purple
#7B2FBE
Decorative gradients
Codec Orange
#FF6B2B
Compression artifacts
Data White
#E0E0E0
Body text
Phosphor White
#FFFFFF
Max-contrast headings
Noise Mid
#444444
Borders / disabled
// 003 — Components

Corrupted Modules

Each component explores a different facet of digital disruption. Cards feature scan line overlays, RGB split on hover, and corrupted-data borders. Hover to corrupt.

Datamosh Engine

A real-time video corruption tool that removes I-frames from compressed video streams, producing the flowing, painterly distortions of datamoshing.

Video WebCodecs Real-time

Hex Painter

Open any image file as raw hexadecimal data and paint directly into the byte stream. Watch the image reconstruct with each corrupted edit.

Data Bending Canvas

Channel Drift

An interactive installation that separates red, green, and blue channels of a live webcam feed and maps each to independent mouse-controlled offsets.

RGB Split WebGL Interactive

Signal Decay

Generative compositions simulating electromagnetic interference, scan line degradation, and VHS tracking errors using pure CSS and SVG filters.

Generative CSS SVG

Codec Autopsy

A visual explainer that deconstructs JPEG, PNG, and WebP compression in real time, revealing the block artifacts and quantization tables hidden inside every image.

Compression Education

Pixel Sort Lab

Upload an image and apply pixel sorting algorithms by brightness, hue, or saturation to create cascading, waterfall-like distortions of sorted pixel rows.

Pixel Sorting WASM

Button Variants

Primary Action Alt Action // ghost_cmd

Form Elements

Code Block

css glitch-effect.css
/* RGB Split Text Effect */
.rgb-split {
  position: relative;
  color: var(--glitch-white);
  font-family: 'Orbitron', sans-serif;
  font-weight: 900;
}

.rgb-split::before {
  content: attr(data-text);
  color: var(--glitch-red);
  mix-blend-mode: screen;
  animation: rgb-split-red 3s infinite;
}

Terminal Output

glitch@void:~/signal$ ./corrupt --mode=datamosh --intensity=0.87 [INFO] Loading source frame buffer... OK [INFO] Removing I-frames from codec stream... [WARN] Frame 0x2F: quantization table overflow [ERR!] Channel RED offset exceeds buffer bounds (+3px) [INFO] Pixel sort pass: brightness ascending [INFO] Applying scan line overlay (2px/4px cycle) [INFO] Corruption complete. Output: corrupted_output.raw glitch@void:~/signal$
// 004 — Effects

Corruption Techniques

Core visual effects that define the Glitch Art aesthetic -- RGB channel splitting, VHS tracking errors, pixel displacement, and screen tearing. Each effect uses pure CSS with no external dependencies.

SPLIT

RGB Channel Split

Chromatic aberration via offset pseudo-elements with mix-blend-mode: screen. Red and blue copies animate independently with clip-path masking.

VHS Tracking

Simulated VHS tracking error bars using gradient-filled elements with staggered vertical animations and faint horizontal scan lines.

Pixel Displacement

Grid of colored blocks with CSS transform offsets on hover, simulating pixel corruption and block displacement from codec failure.

TEARING

Screen Tear

Horizontal tear lines with glowing color trails that simulate a display failing to synchronize its refresh rate, exposing frame boundaries.

// 005 — Data

Corruption Index

Measured distortion parameters across active signal channels. Table rows feature RGB split on hover to reinforce the corruption aesthetic.

Channel Offset X/Y Noise Floor Artifact Rate Blend Mode Status
RED +3px / -1px 0.042 12.7/sec screen CORRUPTED
GREEN +0px / +2px 0.018 3.1/sec screen NOMINAL
BLUE -2px / +1px 0.037 9.4/sec screen DEGRADED
ALPHA +0px / +0px 0.003 0.2/sec normal NOMINAL
SYNC +7px / -4px 0.089 24.1/sec multiply CRITICAL
LUMA -1px / +3px 0.056 15.8/sec overlay CORRUPTED
CHROMA +4px / -2px 0.071 19.3/sec screen DEGRADED
SCANLINE +0px / +0px 0.012 1.0/sec darken NOMINAL

Hex Dump — Corrupted Frame Buffer

0000:0000 47 4C 49 54 43 48 FF 00 41 52 54 00 53 49 47 4E GLITCH..ART.SIGN 0000:0010 41 4C 5F 43 4F 52 DE AD 50 54 00 00 52 47 42 5F AL_COR..PT..RGB_ 0000:0020 53 50 4C 49 54 00 FF 41 00 80 FF 00 FF FF BE EF SPLIT.....░░░░.. 0000:0030 CA FE BA BE 44 41 54 41 4D 4F 53 48 00 FF 00 FF ....DATAMOSH.... 0000:0040 50 49 58 45 4C 00 00 00 53 4F 52 54 5F 4C 41 42 PIXEL...SORT_LAB 0000:0050 00 56 48 53 5F FF FF FF 54 52 41 43 4B 49 4E 47 .VHS_...TRACKING