Glow

From smartphones to billboards, screens constantly show us images. These images may look solid, but they are actually made of lots of dots, called pixels. You might see a few thousand pixels, all black, on a calculator. A television, on the other hand, might boast millions of pixels in millions of colors.

Here you can experiment with your brain’s ability to create smooth images from pixels. Choose an image or take a self-portrait to be transformed into dots. Try changing the number and size of the dots. Play with the number of colors, how much they stand out, and how bright the image is.

How well can you see the image when you make these changes? What happens if you get closer to or farther from the grid of dots?

You can also see how you would look:

• On the black and white display of an early flip phone
• On a Commodore 64, one of the first home computers
• Under the spotlights

Make a “resolution” to check out some exhibits and online content.

This interactive was inspired by the following:

• RGB Light Mirror by Daniel Rozin
• Infinite Love, a past SFMOMA exhibit by Yayoi Kusama
• The Flap Sign at the Ferry Building, Pier 1
• Sun Painting
• Monochromatic Room
• Looking Spotty Science Snack
• Colored Shadows