Motherboard

The pixel is the most fundamental building block of the digital image. Without it, it wouldn’t matter how big that sweet HDTV in your living room is: Modern images simply would not exist. But with high definition displays pushing increasingly massive resolutions, the way we perceive pixels nowadays is becoming similar to the way we perceive the billions of cells in the human body; an unseen universe of tiny blocks that has faded into the gestalt of the modern moving image. Seemingly in response to this, the pixel has recently become the focal point of a resurgent art movement that cherishes its ability to express dynamic qualities in the realms of illustration, animation and videogames.

In his 10 minute mini-doc (seen above), Australian animator Simon Cottee examines the worth of this growing movement by speaking with several artists, most notably Jason Rohrer, renowned independent game designer whose critically-acclaimed titles Passage and Sleep Is Death are prime examples of the creative potential that exists within this unique form of digital minimalism.

Roots

Jason Rohrer’s Passage, an art game that illustrates human mortality on a 100 × 16 pixel grid

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“Once I started using pixel art, I realized how powerful it was,” says Rohrer, who created character sprites for his emotionally-charged game, Passage, that were only 8 pixels high. “It can be representational, but at the same time, it’s abstract enough so that there’s all this room for interpretation.” Rohrer also explains how our interpretation of ‘pixel art’ today might be vastly different from the way in which the technique was originally presented — Back in the heyday of systems like the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System, the graphics would appear blurry and abstract when viewed through standard television sets of the 1970’s and 80’s. It perhaps wasn’t until gamers began to look back on these titles through hardware emulation on modern computers that the rigid, blocky game sprites became fully visible, and through this realization, a desire to re-create this unique aesthetic was born.

Beyond Nostalgia

A pixel art mockup by Jalonso, depicting a fake game inspired by Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch; It uses the same limited color palette as the original Nintendo Game Boy

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What drives pixel art forward is much more than just nostalgia, however. This is most evident when examining its ties to the chiptune scene, another artistic movement that focuses on re-purposing vintage computer systems as musical instruments. In both cases, what began as a nostalgic outlet for those with strong emotional ties to the videogames of old is now a dedicated collective of creative individuals striving to create meaningful product within technically restrictive environments. “I can’t help but feel that much of this content is a response to the crisp, digital 3D graphics of modern games,” says Cottee, referencing Ian Bogost’s A Slow Year, which was programmed and presented entirely on an original Atari 2600 cartridge and game system, “but there seems to be something more to the pixel, an alluring rawness and freedom in its simplicity.”

The Human Factor

Still from the teaser trailer for Danger’s EP, 09/17 2007, by Zoom Pictures

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Cottee is definitely not alone in this opinion. In response to the 16 bit arcade-style teaser trailer that was released to promote French house musician Danger’s newest album, Mike Nowak of Nerd Music gave his take on why the grittiness of pixel art and chipmusic, particularly the kind used in early 90’s street punk beat-em-up’s like Streets of Rage, appeal to us in a way that modern advancements in sound and picture quality will never achieve. “Everything is too f*cking slick now,” he writes, “from sharp high definition displays to 100% accurate digital music reproductions to every post-effect applied to every film and photograph to fix every mistake. It’s boring.”

Meanwhile, the analog entertainment standards of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s were steeped heavily in flaws and imperfections. And when imperfection is the standard, it’s the content itself that holds true value, not the number of lines of resolution or whether or not it’ll be compatible with your new pair of designer 3D glasses. “That’s why chiptunes, and the recent trend of faux-80s retro […] appeal so much,” Nowak explains. “It isn’t just the nostalgic chic of the sound that they produce as much as it’s their embrace of the limits and imperfections of technology. It’s more human that way.” As these cultures expand and flourish, Nowak’s observations will no doubt seem more and more convincing. Reveling in the unpolished glory of our imperfect technologies, lo-fi art and music could very well grow to become the antithesis of the cutting edge techno-fetishism that currently prevails in our consumer culture.

The More Things Change…

Above: Four pixel art illustrations by Enso, on display at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Below Left: Animated Pixel art rendition of Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son; Below Right: Peter Paul Rubens version of the same image, also by Enso

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Pixel art and its related disciplines certainly stand as a testament to how much can be done with so little. But when we consider its position in the history of the world’s art, the formal qualities of pixel art are really not that much different from that of many past art movements. Pointilism, mosaic and tapestry are just a few historical examples mentioned by Cottee that draw parallels between the analog and digital art worlds. Even if the pixel art movement isn’t around for the long-term, it is symbolic of the simplistic beginnings of computer graphics, a period now revitalized and perhaps even on the verge of producing its own Mondrions and Seurats.

Untitled pixel art by Steve Jenkins, part of Crystal Labs’ STFUAJPGM series