9 points to clarify my interest in pixelation and why I am interested in working with pixels. (2017)

I. Decision
II. Authority
III. Abstraction
IV. Facelessness
V. Pushed to the edges
VI. Aesthetics
VII. The worst is censored
VIII. Hypocrisy
IX. Authenticity

I. Decision

I am interested in pixelation because to pixelate – or not, is always a matter of decision. Deciding what part, what area to pixelate, adding or removing a pixel or choosing the size of the pixels is a decision. It’s a political decision.

II. Authority

I am interested in pixelation because it is important to understand that authority is always what motivates pixelation. Truth appears through pixels beyond concealment, non-information or counter-information. Today, more than ever, I need to see everything with my own eyes in our one world, and no one can tell me what my eyes should see or not.

III. Abstraction

I am interested in pixelation because its logic leads to abstraction.

To me, pixelation is a response – through Form – to the question “How can abstraction be understood today?” How can abstraction, through pixelation, engage me in today’s world, time and reality? Pixels in their abstraction build up a new form, opening towards a dynamic and desire of truth. The political thinking is the belief in form, and the aesthetic of pixelation.

IV. Facelessness

I am interested in pixelation because it stands for the time of facelessness that we see in today’s world. What interests me specifically about this aesthetic of facelessness, is its formal embodiment through pixelation.

V. Pushed to the edges

I am interested in pixelation because it pushes information from the center to the edge of a picture. It obliges to look and search elsewhere, away from the central focus to find information or indications of what has been concealed.

VI. Aesthetics

I am interested in pixelation because of its powerful aesthetic.

The aesthetical power comes from the opposition between the beauty of the pixelated part and the non-pixelated part, and from the non-systematic logic of pixelation.

VII. The worst is censored

I am interested in pixelation because what is pixelated is considered as the worst. The worst is not shown, the worst is censored. Pixelation is used as a moralistic arbitration between what to see and what is too improper to look at. Nothing is un-showable. What cannot be shown is what has no form.

VIII. Hypocrisy

I am interested in pixelation because it reveals the hypocrisy of the one using it.

I don’t accept pixelation in my place ‘to protect me’, when the one pixelating claims the opposite, and is is in fact protecting himself.

IX. Authenticity

I am interested in pixelation because pixelating has taken over the role of authenticity. Something pixelated always seems more authentic and is accepted as such. It therefore seems clear that pixels stand for authentication: Authentication through authority.

T. H. 2017