All Things Pixel

Feeling a little square after a long, hard week of working for the man? Set those square pixels free as we explore pixelized creations.
This Pixel Lamp by Istavan Kulinyi is a mobile lamp with a grid of pixels that can be rotated from black to white to orange to create different shapes, looks and feels.

Polish students at a technology university created this show using the lights in their dorm building. I can't vouch for Polish tastes as this shows spends quite a bit of time re-enacting the Matrix complete with gun fights and only a few seconds of Michael Jackson, but it is interesting anyway.

Cdroig (hover over the left side of Entrar and click to get into the company page), a company out of Valencia, created Pixels XL as a wall decoration that can be personalized and constantly changed. They are actually magnetic tiles and require that you apply a coat of ferric paint (contains iron).

Danielle Aubert published a book full of art created in Excel. It took 16 months of formatting cell by cell to create enough pieces for a full book. Excel lovers rejoice. Something to break the monotony of all those numbers!

Metal Panel Innovations

ATAS has introduced horizontal metal panel elements. Both linear metal panels are rainscreen systems with the Versa-Seam being the plank-reveal look and - more exciting - the Versa-Lok being the shingle look. Versa-Seam comes in different widths and Versa-Lok comes in different widths and lengths that can be randomly mixed for a dynamic effect. I wasn't able to find information on their website (though they have plenty other products to check out) but did find a few articles.

Even more exciting is Dri-Design's Ombrae panels. These panels use computer technology to turn images - photos, logos, graphics - into "pixels" in the panel. These pixels are incomplete perforations that could change in size and angle in order to reflect light differently. The effect is a large scale "mural" or digital graphic that interacts with the sun or the artificial lighting. There are a few photos and a video here but it looks like it hasn't been used too much yet. Such great possibilities!