Pixel
Asked to make a workshop for kids, I came up with this idea to teach them about pixels. Maybe not the pixels as adults know them. But Pixels, these small living things, so small you can hardly see them. There's not much know about these things, where did they come from? Nobody knows. But hey, they can do some pretty amazing stuff, these pixels. You can make images with them, 'if' you know how to catch them. And, if you know something about their behavior. Because else you can't do much with them.
Who knows?
Some might believe that pixels were only recently discovered. That it was an invention of modern man. A mere act of genious! Something scientist came up with to make computers. There are others though, who believe that these little smart dots where around ever since mankind appeared on this earth. That is not at all something made by man. Maybe they even existed before man came around. But there is nobody to tell.
Who knows where they came from or how long they are here already? One thing is for sure! Now days they are everywhere. They are around and are not gonna go. They fill the space we live in. There are scientist who look up at the skies at nights, using big telescopes, because the believe that's where they came from. Other scientist look into microscopes, examining the smallest things possible to find out more about there origin. You might not see them all the time, these pixels. But that's because they are more often invisible then visible. This makes it particularly difficult to examine them.
What everybody agrees on, is they seem to like electricity. Definitely, they do. Most often when you seen them, they're stuck inside a computer screen or in a television. They get easily attracted by a camera. You can store them in there and release them afterwards. These days you even find them in telephones, or other similar warm and confined spaces, where there is lots of electricity. One other thing. You need light to see them. Because in the dark you can't see.
En fait, C'est quoi le pixel?
Yeah, but what is a pixel. You have them in different shapes and flavours: round, square or rectangular. They are small, so tiny you can hardly see them. They can have all kinds of colours. From afar they look like small dots, but from up close the look like big squares. If you stretch them, the look like lines. Some or solitary pixels, but most often you see them in large groups. Sometimes they act really busy and are moving all the time, sometimes they don't appear to be moving at all. But, you know, what is the really amazing. You can make images with these pixels.
Searching for pixels!
Thru history many have tried to studie these little colourfull elements. Let's take a closer look at there behavior and a btter understanding. The pixel was first discovered by a group of French artists in late 19th-century France. These painters who called themselves les PWAHN-TUHL-IST where able to. But others claim, that "le point" has been around for longer times, they say there is even proof instead of mixed pigments; the pronunciation is PWAHN-tuhl-ist. Under the expert guidance of Mr. Nessler, artiste, professeur, techno-archeologist, specialist dans le domain du point, le métier du pixel.
