Tag Archives: ASCII

PostArtPoetry: “IHDRkXTPLTEttXX//”, a PNG poem

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In honor of the Post-Art Poets (@postartpoets), whose motto is THE TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY MUST BE ABANDONED IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS, I have interpreted their logo as its own form of machine poetry, reproduced below in both full representation and as edited to retain all English text letters.

Full Poem:

PNG

IHDRkXTPLTEttXX//

]],,ggTTAA<<qqhh”EE66YYJJbb22rr33DD–44yySS[[iillzz::**FF__

>>ssOONN!!        0088&&aa$$ZZMMGGKKRR11II))PPnnUUpp;;LL77~~dd??..jj%%}}^^BBHH""{{WW@@kkffooy&IDATxCeE%BMe5]HSBtIS;2CRC]Jsgd;wf`08 m=`B\ $Qb G@Hc `H] $HgNiBhwC t9(@&m56.l;n=|gAiWo

N(@_Brr]rE?o48@3x@_P7Wd3Zb’Z NBFDl_7)PtPX`T
@FEh ZlO653-|c572!;\d@P’
@duB.].G2k<o04e3t”,r{Q`9!+_86@S5′+!1T7w\<tV@3Y,.<Kp_d.n[`Xic h%T4n5%\QXDUTD    PFOZ<;g)u5}:YPF^`k.L%z@QgF
reeCFu>(Ma{B>tC7@0l    q"`hh(:N2@k@QwQY)9fe'`W60_
/:@6
Uo/I_0@:_0"TNvS3}k+zJ$4E@tt@-<0x'E`-g+f<nqtX3kwkF532aNY-t1W!P. k<~UA(odoV7@_Uq{C
`,
oX`th:
v`aw>|wk    @4.Y0sP]04dW”@{z5_1/A3_1C pu]`};’5@i<i@tX|&”M5U7_T[(i?!N\}&]DZA`i}U=l~F~sw{U_3 ,WO2@Wj{Uehyidc2q]@fMy-G^    S”q|~I5&%ue
72&]    W{7MTP
*2z7k+S8dJdF>N8^n]ooGyIGeYA(P`bh4`k
@hgdaX6X5p`qM)[zli`C.0,:g@-I@:9_j\hO;=v-5`=Gr/    2t@A@@@@fxmLm
}}c+:0@pCmF]&gkA3LP?M&`7T:CK    @sw4y/ey@V.7-.,7TO0*KBh]@wc38Lr!\?]+5@0KK@3P,5tvG,l%$C{|&QZB@@@WQX<R`0f4J
L0`0*0jN8_IENDB`

English Text Version:

PNG

IHDRkXTPLTEttXX

ggTTAAqqhhEEYYJJbbrrDDyySSiillzzFF

ssOONN        aaZZMMGGKKRRIIPPnnUUppLLddjjBBHHWWkkffooyIDATxCeEBMeHSBtISCRCJsgdwf mB Qb GHc H HgNiBhwC tmngAiWo

NBrrrEo483xPWdZbZ NBFDlPtPXT
FEh ZlOcdP
duBGkoetrQSTwtVYKpdnXic hTnQXDUTD    PFOZguYPFkLzQgF
reeCFuMaBtCl    qhhNkQwQYfeW

UoITNvSkzJEttxEgfnqtXkwkFaNYtWP kUAodoVUqC

oXth
vawwk    YsPdWzAC puiitXMUTiNDZAiUlFswU3 WOWjUehyidcqfMyG    SqIue
WMTP
zkSdJdFNnooGyIGeYAPbhk
hgdaXXpqMzliCgIjhOvGr    tAfxmLm
cpCmFgkALPMTCK    swyeyVTOKBhwcLrKKPtvGlCQZBWQXRfJ
LjNIENDB

 Machine-Readable Translation:

54302f6a68d7ace23530650304f8d269-1

 

Another Way to Get More ETG Pixels

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Continuing on the idea of stuffing the Twitter pipeline with pixels, maybe I should just not worry so much about compression and figure out a way to divide images up and let the coding enable people to reconstitute them. Thus, I have prepared a tiled Twitter graphic, expanding from a simple 9 x 12 pixel CGA graphic to a 27 x 36 pixel graphic in 9 tiles.

For this end, though, I’ll need to modify the header definitions. Consider this ETG V0.2, with a small tweak on how to deal with images that are supposed to be displayed together.

The ATG frames code includes a 4-letter ID squib and 2 hex digits for animation frame numbering. I reserved the first block of 128 for a non-looping animation set, which is actually kinda silly because most Web animations are looped anyway. So let’s use that block to indicate the location of each tile in the set. This gives us a latitude of 7 tiles across and 15 tiles down, or tile coordinates 7E.

If you have a tileset of 7 tiles by 10 tiles, then the tiling number 45 means “fourth tile from the left, fifth tile down”. The tiling number 12 means “first tile from the left, second down”. And, using hex, number 7A means “seventh tile from left, ten down”, or the last tile in this set.

For this image, I tiled an image into a 3×3 grid, or 9 tiles. For our first tile, the header will look like this:

`CGA which gives the color space

`09×12 which gives the size of the tile

`FedW11 which gives the ID squib and the origin tile (first from left, first down)

and `{ which locates the data payload.

The tiles can be tweeted in any order, because they share their unique ID squib and their ordering is contained within their headers. However, I prepared these in left-right/top-down order, so I’ll paste them here that way:

`CGA`09x12`FedW11`{000600000000000000000400000000400000000004000
0E7E80000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

`CGA`09x12`FedW12`{000000008000000067000688087000C7707700077C867
000C7786700087778700067787800008E878066608887086206878600088687

`CGA`09x12`FedW13`{600068808680087808600066888088187780938077778
997067787199077777039187C760091177770001199E7000009993000000399

`CGA`09x12`FedW21`{006008604060666660604006086000040660000000004
0000000040000000000000000000000000008800000088860000870E668807E

`CGA`09x12`FedW22`{E777FFF776776877EF788888667766886877767888677
7777767F777E77777E777E77F776777F77777C67777688777C7788787C7C7F7

`CGA`09x12`FedW23`{677E6CC8867C7777888677E7777066777F67006767777
800087877780000660668804008778888860777788A007778A6630137787710

`CGA`09x12`FedW31`{0608000686000600460400060064008EFFF70000666E6
40006EE6A0000680600646066EE0600460666664008EE7C760646E7766800EE

`CGA`09x12`FedW32`{EE77A997E7F77708E6F7F7E66ECF76866F6F7C666A6A6
77088666A7E76E0000F77E7E8677FEEE6000777770444066E6000666E660000

`CGA`09x12`FedW33`{C76E00000C676400006E76040047670404067E6040040
780004000600000000000000000000000000000000400000000000000000006

Here are those pieces:

Here they are assembled:

And here they are enlarged for more clarity:

Further CGA ETG Compression

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I’ve been trying to find a way to compress images even more, so I could expand the size of the color tweets available. Basically, since Twitter uses only the usable characters of ASCII text, and it can be hard to type higher-bit ASCII on some keyboards, I’ve pretty much exhausted the palette of encoding options with my 6-bit “0-9 A-Z a-v” encoding scheme. So… instead of encoding, maybe I could address patterns in the data itself.

One of the easiest things to see in the data are strings of repeating elements. If I could further encode those strings I could save room and not have long lines of 000000 or 33333 for fields of color in the image. Let’s say I simply put the number of pixels in front of the code for the pixel color, and the TwGD will decipher what was meant. So, a string of eight white CGA pixels, FFFFFFFF, would be represented as 8F.

The only problem with this is that the character 8 already encodes for dark grey. Putting numbers in the stream will collide with the numbers already there. So I’ll need to convert the hex numbers into a new coding scheme, so the pixel quantities don’t mess with the pixel codes. Say, pixel 0 (black) equals a, pixel 1 (dark blue) equals b, and so on. In this scheme, the string of white, FFFFFFFF, would become 8p. That’s a savings of 6 characters!

Of course, you won’t get that kind of savings everywhere. Especially 2-pixel doubles, since you’re just replacing 2 identical pixel codes with a “2″ and the new code. There’s still some squishing to be had here. For this special case, I came up with a second series of codes, using punctuation to stand for pixel doubles. Here’s the full set of codes for this scheme, which I’m calling Similar String CGA encoding (“CGS”)

0 = a   00 = !
1 = b   11 = "
2 = c   22 = $
3 = d   33 = %
4 = e   44 = &
5 = f   55 = '
6 = g   66 = (
7 = h   77 = )
8 = i   88 = *
9 = j   99 = +
A = k   AA = ,
B = l   BB = -
C = m   CC = .
D = n   DD = /
E = o   EE = :
F = p   FF = ;

So, using this additional compression scheme, I was able to encode a 12 x 17 pixel CGA image with plenty of room to spare. It doesn’t sound like too much extra, but that’s 150% the area of the 10 x 13 CGA pixel image I tweeted back in December, and includes the ETG header information, too.

Here’s the image, a color version of the self-portrait from yesterday:

And the resulting tweet, using “CGS” as the code for this new compression scheme:

`GCS`12x17`{6ag12ae!ghi9ago11ag8aigag4ah*gpiag3a4h3pigahih3ihphioa3hp
)phigia)ih;hp)!*)p3hpi3ai5hgh3a3ihp4h!*haihp)g!b)i!i)3ajd)i8abj3hi5a

A New ETG (Encoded Twitter Graphic) Self-Portrait

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I dusted off the old ETC encoding protocol today for a project I’m doing for a show entry, creating a self-portrait to send through social media. I used the 6-bit compression scheme I used for old Teddy Roosevelt’s 2-bit gray image for an image of myself. Because I did a couple tweaks on the protocol between encoding Roosevelt and nailing down the format, I had to sacrifice a line of pixels for this image. It’s 15×25 pixels, not 15×26, but that’s not too bad. The tweet:

`2bg`15x25`{K5LLX01MH5G41Kle00GR4004P0006M01GQL07glb0R$$r9UQ$lUkckhlh
$!PFl$$zMh$luck$gq6R!hm6Q!gWRMl$Hdql!LNj1O0Nwb0G2lgG51hxH006fGH00004

And the encoded image:

Install Pics of the BPL Piece

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Yesterday I installed my large-scale print work, “Boston Public Library 4-Color ASCII”. Here are some images showing the installed work from the entrance of the Johnson Lobby, a side shot showing the Children’s Room Stacks, and a full-frame shot of the work itself.

Preview of Large Print for the Mixit/Boston Public Library Show

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Quick preview of the large print I’m doing for the Mixit Print Studio’s 25th Anniversary show, ReThink Ink, at the Boston Public Library. This print will be displayed in the Johnson Lobby of the BPL, along with three other installation pieces, a informational video and a Mixit Studios slideshow. Opening is April 11th. Further information posted here soon.