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When Pixels Collide

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Re: When Pixels Collide

#21

Post by endorphone »

Klathmon wrote: post #10
falcolas wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When every user is limited to updating a single pixel every few minutes, how else could any group of mere mortals create and maintain such a large picture of the Mona Lisa? It's not visually easy to see vandalism on such a complex construct, so expecting that mere people were able to almost instantly identify and fix graffiti is folly. And that's just one highly complex piece which evaded defacement.

Well it's actually pretty simple. They created grids and coordinate numbers that told the groups what each and every pixel should be colored. Then all anyone that wanted to "help" had to do was just look at the grid, and pick a pixel that was wrong to fix. Like you said, each user had plenty of time in between pixel placements to look at the map and choose their next "fix".

Did the tool provide grid coordinates? I don't recall that. Are there any references to subreddits or other locations actually coordinating these things?

Because the way the US flag appeared certainly looks artificial.

Re: When Pixels Collide

#23

Post by Klathmon »

endorphone wrote: post #21
Klathmon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's actually pretty simple. They created grids and coordinate numbers that told the groups what each and every pixel should be colored. Then all anyone that wanted to "help" had to do was just look at the grid, and pick a pixel that was wrong to fix. Like you said, each user had plenty of time in between pixel placements to look at the map and choose their next "fix".

Did the tool provide grid coordinates? I don't recall that. Are there any references to subreddits or other locations actually coordinating these things? Because the way the US flag appeared certainly looks artificial.

[0] was the thread for how to help with the mona lisa.

There were tools being distributed, but they were more to help with placement and location, they didn't do anything for you

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/MonaLisaClan/comments/630qjq/mona_l...

Re: When Pixels Collide

#24

Post by ericjang »

Raphmedia wrote: post #22

The best visualization of this is the heatmaps. Take a look at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tT0F6ZPG-I

"They thought that search engines were a map of what people were thinking. But actually they were a map of how people were thinking. Impulse. Response. Fluid. Imperfect. Patterned. Chaotic."

- Nathan, Ex Machina (2015)

Re: When Pixels Collide

#25

Post by cpeterso »

"The Smaller Picture" is a similar collaborate pixel art project that has been running since 2002. Given a picture description, each visitor gets to vote whether a randomly selected pixel should be flipped to white or black. This site was inspired by an earlier project, "Typophile", to collaboratively create a bitmap font.

http://kevan.org/smaller.cgi

http://typophile.howardesign.com/

Re: When Pixels Collide

#26

Post by bbctol »

falcolas wrote: post #6
artichokeheart wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you have some proof to back your claims.

When every user is limited to updating a single pixel every few minutes, how else could any group of mere mortals create and maintain such a large picture of the Mona Lisa? It's not visually easy to see vandalism on such a complex construct, so expecting that mere people were able to almost instantly identify and fix graffiti is folly. And that's just one highly complex piece which evaded defacement.

You do realize all of these images started out as templates? Like, someone created a pixelized version of the Mona Lisa, then told the users of a subreddit "Go make this at these coordinates." This art wasn't generated spontaneously, but it was made and defended by humans.

Re: When Pixels Collide

#27

Post by rspeer »

Pretty good article, but it starts with an odd inaccuracy: "It gave its users, who are all anonymous..."

Reddit users have names. Pseudonyms, often, but that's quite different from being anonymous, like on 4chan.

In particular, on /r/place, you could see the name of the user who placed each pixel, and this was relevant in diplomacy and conflicts between factions.

Re: When Pixels Collide

#28

Post by owlmirror »

Raphmedia wrote: post #20
falcolas wrote: post #3

Yeah, less collaborative art, and more a competition between bots. In the beginning (and for some of the smaller subreddits), it was people building art. But for the most recognizable pieces, there were simply hundreds of bots enforcing a provided image.

I can assure you that there were a lot of art pieces that were created and defended by hand.

How can you assure that?
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