Archive

The Pixel Cloud drawings are 3 dimensional graphs of each unique pixel color in a digital photograph. Using statistical software, I export the red, green and blue values of every pixel in a photograph to a data file. This dataset is reduced to a set of unique color occurrences, and these pixels are plotted in 3D space along 256-step red, green and blue axes. Dotted gray lines define the plot boundaries. I rotate the Pixel Cloud about its three axes to find the most compelling view. The work’s title describes the content of the source photograph and the number of unique pixel colors.

The source photographs for the Pixel Clouds are images of food. The color of the food on our plates or in our glasses deeply influences our experience of flavor. The notion that we first “eat with our eyes” is a common theme in food-based experimental psychology, commonly labeled “gastrophysics.” Researchers have famously served wine tasters a white wine dyed red, and the manipulated color significantly altered the taster’s experience of flavor; a significant majority identified the dyed white wine as a red (reference). Other experiments suggest that our current foodie culture and the barrage of ‘food porn’ photography found in the media may fuel the obesity crisis (reference).

The color of food sets our expectations and drives our appetites. Humans tend to avoid blue foods due to the color’s association with spoiled and/or poisonous sources. We typically perceive green foods as healthy. The color red is often cited as an appetite stimulant, thus the preponderance of red restaurant logos (reference).

The relationship between color and flavor is complex and nuanced. Beet red sets our expectations for deep, earthy flavor, while strawberry red signals sweetness. When the pictorial information has been removed, only the color signal remains. The Pixel Clouds reside in this nuanced space.

Stuart Allen, 2021
Data science by Dr. Jennifer Rudgers

Glass is a series of macro photographs of palm-sized pyrex objects made by San Antonio artist Justin Parr. Through the combined lenses of the camera and these glass objects we see an interpretation of the landscape. The features of the land, though slightly visible in some images, are largely lost to the refractions and reflections of light imposed by the glass. We are left with traces of information, mostly color – subtle suggestions of place and time.

A continuation of the Low Resolution series, produced for an exhibition at the Wichita Art Museum in 2015.

This series exploits an optical phenomenon that occurs when visible light is distorted by the thin film membrane of a soap bubble. Soap bubbles deconstruct daylight, amplifying some wavelengths while canceling others out, creating an array of color that speaks to the complexity and mutability of what we see as ‘white’ light.

For more information about this series please click here for an artist’s statement.

An extension of the Baja series, all images are pixels extracted from the sky section of photographs taken in different parts of the world. The origin of the original photograph is indicated in small text along the bottom of the print.

The changing color of daylight is recorded at different intervals of time using a piece of white sailcloth attached to a camera lens. The resulting photographs are cropped to vertical strips, then assembled to make one print; a portrait of the light in one place, in one timeframe.

At the base of each strip, small numbers indicate the time of day for a given frame. Sunrise and sunset times are marked when relevant. Titles indicate the location in longitude / latitude coordinates.

All of the photographs is this series are small sets of pixels extracted from a single digital photograph, taken by the artist in Baja California, Mexico in 2003. Titles indicate the section of the original photograph from which the pixels are taken. Aside from a dramatic increase in scale, the pixels have not been modified or re-arranged.

For more information about this series click here for an artist’s statement.

Images in this series are pixels extracted from photographs of different parts of the human body: hair, skin, and most notably, eyes. The subject’s initials and the date are embedded in small text along the bottom of the image.