Interface[s] Montréal

Visualization

Michel Panouillot

Interactive Media Designer, Experientiae Electricae

Pixy

View the presentation [In French]

Pixy came out of the need to overcome already existing video displays. Pixy displays low resolution image one can manipulate and physically distort; each pixel of the image is an autonomous physical element made out of electroluminescent paper, it can be moved. It can be placed on a volume and become an object.

Pixy overcomes video image itself by transforming each pixel as an object and video in a volume, low resolution image becomes an immersive experience.

We conceived the Pixy as an experiment that questions the place of visual media in volume at architectural scales The perception of this materialised video in space reconfigures the perceptual approach to the image both in terms of time and space, a feeling of instable constant transforming state.

As low resolution image keeps disappearing both in time and space, it still however renders the grey tones and flux of video that directly relates it to humanity.

Pixy is a production of the French Canadian collective Experientiae Electricae. It is a co-production between Vidéographe (Montreal) and ARCADI (France). And co-prod residency at Banff new Media.

Pixy’s pixels are made out of electroluminescent paper that lights up when an electrical tension is applied. Each autonomous 1x1 inch square corresponds to a pixel, its variable luminescence displays 256 tones, and all the combined squares define Pixy’s resolution by recombining a low resolution matrix allowing the reproduction of an animated image.

Experientiae Electricae is an open collaboration between a graphic artist Michel Panouillot, a visual artist Natacha Roussel, and an electro technician Michael Roy, who unite to develop an independent research lab along 2 axes, co-creation, and powerful minimalist technology design, ie: experimenting with electricity.