Saturday, October 9, 2010

The pixel art nostalgia

Pixel graphics from their very first appearance in the scientific lab feature a long-standing history. In this article we will look at the historic evolution of pixel from its early days as a tool of virtual representation of visual information till modern use of technology as an effective artistic device.

The first mention of pixel art dates back to 1982 when Adele Goldberg and Robert Flegal in Xerox Palo Alto Research Center coined the term in reference to art form, digitally rendered by means of computer interface, where an image is assembled and manipulated on the pixel level – through the series individually “drawn” dots of colour. Yet, the concept of pixel traces several decades back, long before it established itself as a tool of artistic expression.

The history of the word pixel brings us far back to 1926, when Alfred Dinsdale had written the very first English book on Television, in which he described the concept known today as pixels as “a mosaic of selenium cells, a great number of small parts, thousands of little squares, and a succession of little areas of varying brilliance.” And in the following year he produced news article “Television Demonstration in America” in Wireless World magazine in which he first introduced the term picture element.












As the word “pix” at the time was the commonly known slang for picture, the term picture element had gradually changed into pixel, and the pixel became the smallest unit of measure of an on-screen (and later digital) image. Yet only a half a century later pixel, and its scientific and creative application started gaining critical recognition and the term became adopted publically in the 1980s, when the term featured in numerous publications. In 1982 Goldberg and Flegal wrote a column entitled “Pixel Art”, dedicated to Joseph Maleson, one of the scientists involved in developing the pixel technology.
















From late 80s on pixel and pixel based art formed an integral part of popular culture and started widely appealing in the media. As an example, below is a cover of German children’s book featuring adventures of Pixel.



























So what made pixel so famous? Let’s take a closer look at the technology that brought pixel graphics into existence. It all started with SuperPaint, the computer system (based on the 8-bit video digitizer) that rendered the very first CGI graphics and animation, and opened new horizons for image production and manipulation. The system was designed in the late 1973 by Richard Shoup at Xerox PARC, and in 1993 it produced it’s very first image.


























The system included the graphics display menu with various drawing functions, brushes and editing tools.





















In the late 1970s the new system came to the attention of producers at American PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), who were looking for unique and innovative graphics and animation for their new TV show. Eventually, the channel’s art directors began the long-term collaboration with Damon Rarey at Xerox PARC, who produced numbers of cost effective graphics and animations for the PBS television series “Over Easy” produced at KQED in San Francisco, which marked the very first use of CGI in broadcast television.


















“Over Easy” by Damon Rarey


The first serious test of system’s pixel graphic capabilities came about in the end of 1978 when NASA commissioned SuperPaint team to visualise Pioneer mission to Venus, as the spacecraft was not equipped with the camera device. Therefore a series of animated 8-bit graphics had been produced using SuperPaint system to broadcast around the globe the progress of the mission through NASA-TV.




















Pioneer Venus orbit insertion, by Damon Rarey





















Solar Wind, by Damon Rarey



In the following years the SuperPaint team would return to NASA site again to work on visualisations for the subsequent Pioneer’s missions, including one to planet Saturn.

Throughout the 1980s the technology developed at Xerox PARC was used on the number of media and film projects. The team of SuperPaint scientists first joined Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas' visual effects production house, and later formed Pixar Animation Studio, which received numerous awards and nominations, including Emmy and The Academy Award for achievements in special effects production.

The era of mass popularisation of pixel graphics came in 1980’s when the technology was quick adopted by the video game industry. Early video games consoles featured a slow image processing capacity and worked within a very small screen resolution. For example The Atari 2600 had a screen resolution of 192x160 pixels and The Nintendo Entertainment System - 256x240. In comparison, today’s HD television features a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. For such technical constrains, early video games could not be visually complex and featured limited 8bit colour palette, which posed a real challenge for game developers to produce minimalist yet representational and visually appealing graphics in the early video games. There is a classic story of Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of The Legends of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. video games, who had to gave Mario big nose and a moustache to get around the lack of facial details of the character.






















In the modern era of fast computers and High Definition screens, the role of pixel as technological device significantly diminished, yet the use of old pixel graphics as tool of artistic expression in the course of past decade escalated enormously. Today pixel art can be easily found both in and beyond computer screen. 8-bit images present in modern advertising, street graffiti art, music album and magazine covers, digital and print artwork, tattoos and so on. This raises a curious question: how such an old and limited technology enjoys a tremendous degree of popularity in the modern “hi-tech” world. I think we can partially find an answer if look back into the history of arts. For, in it’s nature, pixel graphics is in many ways similar to various traditional art forms, such as embroidery (cross-stitch), mosaic, stained glass, beadwork, and many others types of art where image is constructed out of multiple small coloured elements. Even in the last century’s expressionistic paintings could be discovered the essence of pixel art.























Paul Klee - Southern (Tunisian) Gardens – 1919



Syosa, a pixel artist from Japan, explains in the interview: “When I pixel, I do not only use my artistic sensibilities. I have to beat my brain to develop the most efficient palette, due to colour and size restrictions. I find pixel art is very similar to Japanese Haiku. I've worked with 2 to 5 colour palette challenges, size restricted challenges and downsizing challenges in Japanese pixel art forums. Pixel art looks best when there’s no wasted colour.”

http://www.pixeljoint.com/2009/10/03/2938/Pixel_Artist_-_Syosa.htm


Pixel artist Jason Rory, in 2007 designed an 8-bit video game “Passage” featuring 2 characters, only 8 pixels tall each. In the documentary short called “Pixel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mqAZ06dwKU) he explains that the beauty of pixel graphics is that it is representational and abstract at the same time, it’s expressive power lies in its ambiguity and simplicity. Also, nowadays many people find 8-bit graphics a creative answer to the modern 3D graphic industry with it’s strive for complexity and photorealism. Most importantly, it is undeniable that the golden age of console games left a significant cultural imprint on the society and peoples past. As childhood experience generally plays an important part in any artists work, many graphic designers tend to nostalgically return to that retro image of 80s to recapture the spirit of “good old times.”

Below some of the modern examples of pixel art:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI_Ouyf36v8




















http://gothamist.com/2008/04/23/street_art_fun.php



















http://levelselect.co.uk/nintendo-graffiti/

















Pixel map of Hong-Kong
http://hongkong.edushi.com/Default.aspx?L=en







































































Material Used:


Lyon, R. F. “A Brief History of ‘Pixel’”
http://www.foveon.com/files/ABriefHistoryofPixel2.pdf


Shoup, R. “SuperPaint: An Early Frame Buffer Graphics System”
www.rgshoup.com/prof/SuperPaint/Annals_final.pdf


The pixel art documentary “Pixel”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mqAZ06dwKU


Shoup, R. “The SuperPaint System (1973-1979)
http://www.rgshoup.com/prof/SuperPaint/

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