Kilopixel: Robotic Wooden Display Creates Art from User Designs
In a world increasingly dominated by high-resolution, instant digital displays, a Wisconsin-based software engineer named Ben Holmen has spent six years meticulously crafting a deliberately inefficient, yet captivating, art machine: Kilopixel. This interactive wooden pixel display, featured by 404Media.Co, transforms a CNC machine and a thousand wooden blocks into real-time, tangible pixel art, offering a unique blend of retro charm and modern interactivity.
Kilopixel is a 40x25 grid, totaling 1,000 pixels, each made from a precisely crafted wooden cube. Unlike the millions of pixels that change sixty times a second on a modern smartphone screen, Kilopixel changes a single pixel at a rate of just ten per minute, making it “the world’s most impractical 1000-pixel display.” This intentional slowness is part of its allure, drawing viewers into a meditative appreciation of the art’s gradual formation.
The mechanism behind Kilopixel is a marvel of custom engineering. Holmen, initially exploring options like ping-pong balls, ultimately settled on cubic wooden blocks due to their precision and appearance. Each block is threaded onto shelves using metal wires, ensuring independent movement. A custom-built CNC machine, akin to a wall-mounted XY plotter, is at the heart of the operation. It utilizes a “pixel poking mechanism” controlled by G-code, the same language used in CNC programming, to rotate the wooden blocks. When a “glue stick” is pushed out, the pixel rotates, changing its visible color. A Raspberry Pi connected to the CNC controller queries an API, writes the necessary G-code to move to a specific pixel, activates the poker, and then reads a light sensor to determine the pixel’s new physical state, returning that information to the API.
What truly sets Kilopixel apart is its interactive nature. Holmen designed a web interface (kilopx.com) that allows users to submit their own 40x25 pixel art designs, with the most popular submissions being drawn next. There’s also a real-time collaboration mode where users can collectively change pixels, though this works best with fewer participants. The machine is installed in Holmen’s office and streams its slow, deliberate drawing process live on YouTube, allowing a global audience to witness the art unfolding pixel by painstaking pixel. Holmen envisions the Kilopixel eventually being installed in public spaces like coffee shops, where it could display user-submitted drawings, facilitate collaborative art, or generate patterns in an “idle mode.”
The Kilopixel project represents a fascinating intersection of technology, art, and patience. It’s a testament to the dedication of a maker who spent six years bringing a “ridiculous wooden pixel display” to life, encompassing web app development, physical controller design, custom CNC fabrication, 3D modeling, 3D printing, and material sourcing. In an age of instant gratification, Kilopixel stands as a compelling, tangible reminder of the beauty found in slow, deliberate creation and the unexpected artistry that can emerge from mechanical ingenuity.