Artifact, or artefact, may refer to:

Science and technology

Artifact (error) In natural science and signal processing, an artifact or artefact is any error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. Th ...

, misleading or confusing alteration in data or observation, commonly in experimental science, resulting from flaws in technique or equipment **

Compression artifact A compression artifact (or artefact) is a noticeable distortion of media (including images, audio, and video) caused by the application of lossy compression. Lossy data compression involves discarding some of the media's data so that it beco ...

, a loss of clarity caused by the data compression of an image, audio, or video **

Digital artifact Digital artifact in information science, is any undesired or unintended alteration in data introduced in a digital process by an involved technique and/or technology. Digital artifact can be of any content types including text, audio, video, ...

, any undesired alteration in data introduced during its digital processing **

Visual artifact Visual artifacts (also artefacts) are artifact (error), anomalies apparent during visual representation as in digital graphics and other forms of imagery, especially photography and microscopy. In digital graphics * Image quality#Image quality f ...

, anomalies during visual representation of digital graphics and imagery * In the

scrum Scrum may refer to: Sport * Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league ** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union * Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi Media and popular culture * M ...

software project management framework, documentation used for managing the project

Archaeology

Artifact (archaeology) An artifact, or artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a general term for an item made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest. In archaeology, the ...

, an object formed by humans, particularly one of interest to archaeologists *

Cultural artifact A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information ...

, in the social sciences, anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users * ''The Artefact'' (journal), published annually by the Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria

Computing

Artifact (software development) An artifact is one of many kinds of ''tangible'' by-products produced during the development of software. Some artifacts (e.g., use cases, class diagrams, and other Unified Modeling Language (UML) models, requirements and design documents) help de ...

, one of many kinds of tangible by-products produced during the development of software *

Artifact (enterprise architecture) Enterprise architecture artifacts, or EA artifacts, are separate documents constituting enterprise architecture.Winter, R. and Fischer, R. (2006), ''Essential Layers, Artifacts, and Dependencies of Enterprise Architecture'', In: Vallecillo, A. ...

, a separate component of enterprise architecture *

Virtual artifact A virtual artifact (VA) is an immaterial object that exists in the human mind or in a digital environment, for example the Internet, intranet, virtual reality, cyberspace, etc. Background The term "virtual artifact" has been used in a variety of ...

, an object in a digital environment *

Artifact (UML) An artifact in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the specification of a physical piece of information that is used or produced by a software development process, or by deployment and operation of a system."OMG (2008). OMG Unified Modeling Lan ...

, a term in the Unified Modeling Language

Arts and media

Film and television

* ''Artifact'' (film), a 2012 documentary film directed by Jared Leto under the pseudonym of Bartholomew Cubbins * ''Artifacts'' (film), a 2007 horror film * The Artifact (''Eureka''), a fictional object appearing in the TV series ''Eureka''

Games

* ''Artifact'' (video game), a 2018 digital collectible card game by Valve * Artifact (''Magic: The Gathering''), a card type in the trading card game ''Magic: The Gathering''

Music

* ''Artifacts'' (Steve Roach album), 1994 * ''Artifacts'' (Nicole Mitchell album), 2015 *

Artifacts (group) The Artifacts was an East Coast hip hop group consisting of El Da Sensei, Tame One and DJ Kaos. They hail from Newark, New Jersey and made underground music that paid homage to the four elements of hip hop. The Artifacts' most popular sing ...

, a hip-hop duo from New Jersey * ''Artifact'' (album), a 2002 album by The Electric Prunes * ''

Artiifact ''Artiifact'' (stylized as ARTIIFACT) is the debut studio album by South African hip hop record producer and musician Anatii. The album was released on 9 September 2016 by his record label YAL Entertainment, after many delays and following single ...

'', a 2016 album by South African hip hop record producer Anatii * ''Artifacts'' (Beirut album), 2022

Other media

* ''Artifact'', a 1985 science fiction novel by

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

* ''Artifact'' (ballet), 1984 ballet by William Forsythe

Other uses

Learning artifact (education) In educational psychology, a learning artifact (or educational artifact) is an object created by students during the course of instruction. To be considered an artifact, an object needs to be lasting, durable, public, and materially present. Under ...

, an object created by students during the course of instruction *

Artifacting Composite artifact colors is a designation commonly used to address several graphic modes of some 1970s and 1980s home computers. With some machines, when connected to an NTSC TV or monitor over composite video outputs, the video signal en ...

, a technique used on some older computers to generate color in monochrome modes by exploiting artifacts of analog television systems * A

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

, an object left behind by a prophet or other important religious figure