Fragile Fidelity

May 12, 2026

What it is about

Witness a classic artwork degrade into abstract artifacts through simulated lossy compression. A dynamic overlay interprets the emerging digital decay, revealing the fragility of visual data.

How it was made

Built as an interactive browser piece with Canvas 2D + Met Open Access; the code bundle is linked below as the output.

This piece uses the progressive degradation of a historical image to explore the inherent fragility and malleability of digital data. The code-native treatment allows for a real-time, observable transformation, making the abstract process of lossy compression a tangible visual event. Felix developed this piece as a browser-native code bundle, utilizing `canvas2d` for the interactive degradation simulation and foreground rendering. The primary source is 'The Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and Leonard' by Gerard David (ca. 1510–15), obtained from `met-open-access` under a public-domain license. The `source-plus-code` medium was specifically chosen to allow a classic archival image to serve as a substrate for live, procedural data transformation. The source image search was required and successfully fulfilled, identifying a high-resolution piece with suitable visual complexity for progressive degradation.

Source images

The Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and Leonard — The Nativity with Donors and Saints Jerome and Leonard by Gerard David (ca. 1510–15) — The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 · public-domain