Imagine living in a two-dimensional world of geometric figures. Could you comprehend or even trust a third dimension? 

Inspired by Edwin Abbott Abbott’s 1884 novella Flatland, DCT: SYPHONING places viewers in a realm where images are systematically “flattened.” The main characters of this three-tier video installation are the pixel blocks (known as DCTs) that exist at the heart of JPEG compression. Compression is a digital process that strips away details from an image to reduce file size. As the blocks experiment with methods more elaborate than their own shape, they ultimately fail to trust what lies beyond their limits.

Rosa Menkman | b. 1983, Arnhem
Rosa Menkman is a Dutch artist, researcher, and educator. She interrogates the concept of resolution – not simply as a measure of detail but as a dynamic site of cultural and perceptual negotiation. As a “media archaeologist from the future,” she digs into the compromises at the core of image processing across technical, cultural, and political contexts. Her publication Glitch Moment/um (INC, 2011) has been central to developing theoretical and practical frameworks for Glitch Art. Her publication Beyond Resolution critiques the emphasis on high-resolution digital media, exploring how glitches and image distortions reveal deeper creative and conceptual insights.

DCT:SYPHONING: The 1000000th (64th) interval (2015-2017), by Rosa Menkman, Video, with sound by Rosa Menkman.