Pillarboxing

he practice of displaying video in a non-native aspect ratio by adding vertical bars (pillars), typically black, to the sides of the frame. While a technical solution for fitting content like vertical video into a horizontal container, pillarboxing visually signifies incompatibility and can reinforce the 'wrongness' of non-standard formats. It makes the container (the screen standard) visible and exposes the arbitrary nature of its dominance.