Work in progress

Voxelate

A young girl can be seen standing alone on the train station platform. Who's she with? Is she travelling alone? Engrossed in her own world, she is still and focuses on the phone she carries. As a concerned member of the public approaches, her form appears to digitize and fragment into cubes. 

A sculpture is being made which acts as a three-dimensional pixilated portrait. As with a heavily pixilated two dimensional image made of squares, from a distance the sculptures can be easily read. As the viewer gets closer the object appears to fragment into cubes. Commissioned by the Watershed the artworks are being created for installation at the within Bristol Temple Quarter.

Context
Every occasion of our lives now seems to be documented with the plethora of cameras we carry around with us. Images are shared and distributed online for our family, friends and the public to see. Unsure of the implications of this life online, will photos of us remain on the internet forever? Or will they simply get lost and become anonymous in the billions of images we upload each year?

This project has stemmed from Jerram's ongoing research of visual perception. The fact that he is colourblind has given him a natural interest in exploring how we see and interpret the world around us. Find out about the history of pixilation here.

"From the age of 3 my daughter could use an iPhone. For her the technology was like a pencil, just another everyday tool to be used. Born into this world, for her, the digital revolution and the speed of technological development is not yet apparent." Luke Jerram

Process

To make this artwork the subject was scanned using an Xbox kinect. The head was scanned at the Machine Vision Laboratory (MVL) within the University of West of England. From there the body scan was then pixilated into cubes known as voxels. Then the model was created from precisely (waterjet) cut, sheets of aluminium. Over 10,000 small, 12mm square coloured stickers were then printed and painstakingly fixed onto this aluminium surface.

Printing was completed at the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) where Luke Jerram is a Senior Research Fellow.

Partners

Voxelate is part of Bristol Temple Quarter commissions coordinated by Watershed, Knowle West Media Centre and MAYK, with support from Bristol City Council and Arts Council Engand. They will pop up, excite and reinvent perceptions and potentials.

Final Artwork being made
Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) University of West of England.
Richard de Lancey - Nu Desine
Paul Muncaster - technician.

Additional Partners for the Prototype
Gary Atkinson at the UWE Machine Vision Laboratory (MVL)
Justin Dowling- JD3D

Interesting links about pixlation

Pixilation in crime imagery.
Paper on pixilated face recognition