DominoPix
Pictures and portraits made from entire sets of dominos.
Domino-Pix™ ... How did it happen?
Ken Knowlton, renowned computer graphic artist, who uses computers to
create mosaic pictures with symbols and objects conceived of using
sets of dominoes to construct pictures, with the constraint that
complete sets of dominoes must be used. Other kinds of Ken Knowlton's
mosaics can be seen at
http://www.knowltonmosaics.com.
Ken teamed up with us to produce art pictures and custom portraits made
of complete sets of physical dominoes. The arrangement of dominoes has
been determined by the use of our patented computer process (US Patent #4,398,890).
Domino-Pix™ ... Why does it work?
When you are at the edge of a forest, you might, as the saying goes,
see the individual trees, but not the forest as a whole.
Even more so with subtle objects.
So it is with domino pictures.
You may see the five/five domino as an 'X' pattern and the three/three domino
as two diagonal lines, but unless you are thinking about it you are not
likely to see the five/five as 'brighter' than the three/three - not
until you back away far enough so that the dots blend and the five/five shows
you its average brightness, which results from the number of white spots it has.
This is the feature which gives brightness tone to domino pictures -- the
averae number of spots in any small area, much as a newspaper half-tone photo.
Domino-Pix™ expoloits this phenomenon by using the ends of the dominoes
as large points whose brightness increases as the number of spots increases.
Each portrait that we make contains 6 sets of dominoes, with only 660 pixels
with which to develop a recognizable image. It is this extreme coarsness of
grain which makes it necessary to step back to let your eyes bring out the
picture.
Domino-Pix™ ... What is it?
When you send us a suitable portrait photograph, we import the image into our
computer and calculate the best arrangement of the 330 dominoes in 6 sets of
nine-nine (double-nine) dominoes to produce the image. Then, we lay out the
dominoes in the correct placement on a backing board and attach them to the
board, which is then framed. The finished custom portrait is approximately
25"x33" and is shipped with a "plan" showing the placement and orientation
of the dominoes.
For information and ordering instructions, please go to our
ordering page.