Digital imagery is endless; bits and bytes of data form identical pictures. In Pixelography, Random International wrestles limitless, intangible digital imagery back into the finite, material world through the manual act of mark-making. The artists have created custom performance instruments with which they can portray digital images in ink, by hand, live. 

The Pixelography instruments scan digital source imagery while simultaneously marking it out on paper; the scanning process is determined by the movement of the artist’s hand. Although the paintings share identical source material, the human hand renders them with subtle variance, testament to the performance that created them. 

It’s an intimate thing, each performance documenting a moment in time for those who witnessed it and revealing uniqueness within what appears to be uniform. Through physical touch, human creativity and connectivity is made crucial in the relationship with increasingly advanced technologies. As Artificial Intelligences continue to intercede in more and more processes, Pixelography emphasises the importance of the artist’s hand within human creativity. 

Pixelography’s origins can be traced back to the foundation of Random International in the early 2000s. Whilst much has changed since then in our relationship with digital imagery—especially regarding its authenticity, quality, quantity and proliferation—the Pixelography process continues to forge connections between physical and digital, two worlds that we inhabit simultaneously each day and that are increasingly part of one another. It all comes back to the hand—the digital, digits, fingers. Our hands are our first technology, not just for making things but for making sense of things.