The PingPongPixel


'Marenka Deenstra Marenka Deenstra / 'Jonathan den Breejen Jonathan den Breejen

Public spaces are increasingly invaded by commercial display-systems, predominantly in the form of adverts or public information displays.

Providing information to people in the most efficient and fastest way has always been the main purpose of display-systems. PingPongPixel is an alternative system that stands in contrast to these display-systems. It competes for attention merely by its slow, basic and entertaining way of presenting information.

The PingPongPixel is an interactive non-luminescent display-system, that consists of 8100 table tennis balls in 6 grey tones, so it can display portraits using table tennis balls as pixels. The spectator can have his/her portrait loaded onto the screen.

The installation consists of 2 units. The first is the display unit, the other one is the cabinet where the table tennis balls are stored and from which they are dispensed.

The display unit is about two by three meters; the produced picture is approx. 2,40 meters high by 1,80 wide! One pixel is 38 millimeters. Each image is built out of 2700 tennis table balls in 6 grey tones!

The system works as following: When an image is shown, the lowest line will fall away so that the whole image moves one row down. This row of balls is transported back, by air, to the storage cabinet and sorted back into their color-specific basket. By dispensing 45 new balls in the right order a new line is formed. This line is blown to the top of the display screen, and dropped onto the balls that are already visible. This goes on until a new picture is fully visible. The portrait is then visible for a couple of minutes. Then the new image is built up as mentioned before, this way there is always something to see! Simple, almost like a matrix printer.

With many thanks to: Paul Jansen Klomp, Alex Geilenkirchen, Koen Koevoets & Comhan Holland