What is digital decay?

Digital decay describes the gradual degradation of digital files and media over time, whether through repeated copying, compression, format obsolescence, or storage failure. Unlike physical decay, digital degradation often manifests in distinctly technological ways -corruption artifacts, missing data, and format incompatibilities.

Glitch artists embrace digital decay aesthetically, using techniques that simulate or accelerate degradation. Generational loss -repeatedly saving a file in lossy format -accumulates compression artifacts. Deliberately corrupted storage creates unpredictable data damage.

The concept has philosophical dimensions, challenging assumptions about digital permanence. While digital files can theoretically exist forever unchanged, practical reality involves format obsolescence, bit rot, and infrastructural collapse.

Artists explore digital decay through projects involving long-term file degradation, archaeological recovery of damaged media, and simulated aging effects. The aesthetic connects to broader themes of impermanence, nostalgia, and our relationship with technological time.