Heavy Compression Artifacts is a research site dedicated to exploring the aesthetic possibilities of lossy data compression to achieve outstanding results and interesting media objects. 

Claude Shannon's research ideas on Information Theory provided the theoretical background for rate-distortion theory and data compression and articulates the possibility of statistical interference which led to the creation of data compression coding.

Lossy compression is a method where by compressing, sending, then retrieving and decompressing data may lead to an object close enough, but different than the original.