Motionographer has a long post about what they term datamoshing—essentially, using compression artifacts intentionally for visual effect. It’s been a hot topic lately, with Kanye West and others releasing compression-heavy music videos, and many people are billing datamoshing as The Next Big Thing. With that in mind, also of note is a post from David O’Reilly entitled Datamoshing is so over! that argues that the technique is neither a new technique, nor is it appropriate in the music videos that have popularized it:

The only criticism for the recent, popularized versions of the effect is that it’s being stuck on to a normal performance, when the music or content doesn’t remotely call for it. I don’t believe any form of cinema should be about cherry picking new effects, aesthetics should always serve the content.