#pixeltron

Rumor has it, Pixeltron was born on top of a mountain and raised by wolves. He spent most of his life deep in the forest and didn't see a human until he was late in his teens. After poachers killed his family they captured him and brought him to Seattle to be introduced into civilization. To cope with the struggles that he didn't understand, he discovered art and used it as a form of therapy which he still practices today. Pixeltron is an artist based in Seattle with talents ranging from multimedia to street art. He focuses on the use of color, composition and technique. He enjoys using different mediums which allows him to explore different styles, combine influences and create inspiring art.

The PixelTron is a project Liz and I created for the 2012 Northern Spark outdoor lighting festival in Minneapolis. Originally called the PixelTron150, it is a 15 x 10 grid of pixels, each measuring 6" on a side, leading to an overall screen size of 7.5' x 5' x 8", housed in a custom-built arcade cabinet that stood 8' tall and 8' wide, with a total depth of about 4'.

Each pixel is lit from behind by a single color-changing LED, similar to the kind used for the lights on the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland.

The PixelTron accepts an arbitrary video signal and can be used to show absolutely any image, game, or video imaginable. However I created a custom game for the festival, a 3-player racing game called Low-Rez Racer that was designed specifically for a resolution of 15 pixels by 10 pixels.

The PixelTron 150 is a 15x10 pixel screen that takes an arbitrary video feed and down-rezzes it.