Research Blog Post 5: Downloading Pixels

Downloading Pixels is an art piece by Scott Blake. In his biography Blake "takes bar codes and turns them into art- art that is simultaneously pop and op, intellectual and personal, minimal and ocular. Blake uses the black and white icon of our data drenched existence to simulate thought on topics form consumerism to religion and individual identity. He urges the viewer to consider the limitations of digitized human expression and to appropriate these symbols of  commodity."

The description of this piece on Rhizome.org says "This net art piece captures the flow of downloading images onto your computer. This animation will look different depending on what web browser you are using. If you are using Firefox try viewing this in Explorer or on an iPhone. Internet connection speed and computer processing power will also determine the final the outcome. Experiment with the different settings and unusual patterns will emerge." If you play around with this interactive art piece you can manipulate the download rate and the style of the piece. This makes me think about how drastic the internet has changed in only a few decades. Now the biggest file capacity is in Pentabytes. It makes me understand how impatient I am when the internet is slow or not available. 

I like how interactive this piece is and the versatility that it can be. I felt like an artist changing the style and speed of the formats. I wouldn't change anything. 

Sources: Bio of artist: http://rhizome.org/profile/scottblake1// Rhizome: http://rhizome.org/artbase/artwork/48619/
Downloading  Pixels Art Piece: http://www.barcodeart.com/artwork/netart/downloading/index.html