Narrative Provenance
We are taught to see digital data as fluid, weightless, and seamless. We believe that a file is the same file whether it lives on a floppy disk or a cloud server. Frictional Data challenges this illusion. It argues that every movement leaves a mark. Just as a physical book gathers dust, shelf-wear, and marginalia, a digital file gathers "friction" from the systems it touches.
The Material Truth of the File
Frictional data is often invisible to the user but glaringly obvious to the forensic archaeologist. It manifests as:
Structural Redundancy
Why does a Windows Bitmap (.BMP) file have padding bytes at the end of every row? Because
the Windows architecture was optimized for 32-bit processors, and efficiency was sacrificed for speed.
The file is not just an image; it is a fossil of x86 hegemony.
Ghostly Dependencies
Why does a 1990s Macintosh file (.SIT) break when moved to a PC? Because it relies on a
"Resource Fork"—a secondary data stream that stored icons and metadata. This fork is frictional data
that reveals Apple's deep philosophical commitment to the "unified object" over the "flat file."
Compression Scars
Why does early web audio sound "underwater"? The artifacts of RealMedia compression (8kbps, 11kHz) are not just low quality; they are the frictional evidence of bandwidth scarcity. They tell us about the modem era just as clearly as a date stamp.
Field Notes
The File as Argument: Every file format is an argument about how the world should be organized. Does it prioritize compression (speed) or fidelity (quality)? Does it lock you in (proprietary) or let you out (open)? Frictional data is where these arguments are physically inscribed.
Reading the Glitch: Often, what we call "corruption" is simply frictional data that has lost its context. A scrambled text file is often just a UTF-8 document trying to speak ASCII.