Okay, I want to get a bit interactive with you if you’ll allow me. You lot seem utterly unmoved by my writing so I have decided to try a new approach, just for fun.
I need you to stand up and step away from your computer. In fact I need you to step about five or six feet away from your computer by close enough to it so you can still see the screen. Once you do this the picture above will, or at least it should, reveal itself to you. – Go ahead try it.
(Ah come on, be a sport, don’t just sit there, get interactive. get out of that seat!)
So, did you see it? An American flag right? The rest is a little hard to make out but as the picture on the right reveals it’s a painted mailbox. Only the picture above is made up of nearly two thousand one hundred pictures I’ve taken the last four years in America.
A closer inspection of the picture will reveal those 2092 images to you. It’s got a few faces in it that a number of you will recognize. There’s Erin and Amy Davis, Matt and Jude, Jess, Roy and maybe a few more, I haven’t had a close enough look myself yet.
The pictures were chosen and arranged by some clever software. All I did was chose the original image I wanted to create a Mosaic of. It took hours and hours to compile and has created an image roughly as big as a highway billboard! I’m going to create a couple more, but I’ll mess around with the setting for those. In fact I think this first one isn’t all that great as the mosaic image itself wasn’t the best choice.
The original image was taken a couple of years ago in New England near Rockport, north of Boston. However the mosaic image comprises of pictures taken in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, and of course Texas.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2005 at 4:41 pm
Did you step back and see the picture though. Did we interact across the Atlantic? :-)
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2005 at 4:29 pm
Very cool, especially the Texas part…
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2005 at 4:32 pm
love it. :-) i used to have a yoda poster that was made of tiny pictures from film stills. i always like that stuff. that’s cool you found a program to do it automatically.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2005 at 6:23 pm
I almost got out of my seat, but I leaned real far back. Being severely near sighted, it was like I was in the next room! :-) Very cool mosaic.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 13, 2005 at 6:36 pm
love it too
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 3:59 am
Did anyone look at the bigger version? You’re all welcome to nick it as wallpaper (that & the orginal if you like).
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 8:41 am
I’m smiling here. We’re all moving together! Great stuff. And ‘Swallowed In The Sea’ by Coldplay kinda musically fits well with the image in my mind of you all moving to look at the pic in your own spaces. Great stuff :-)
You guys are great!
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 10:53 am
Karen, you’re looking at the bigger version right?Jude, there is a picture of you and Matt, but also a couple of you and me. The pic is actually sideways though, they’re not far from “ROY!” in his red T-shirt.
I’ve also found Carey in there too :-)
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 3:22 am
Pretty cool..it reminds me of those pictures we all use to stare at..at the mall.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 5:34 am
Yes, I got out of my seat, as well as made Husband stand there with me. Your plan has worked…you are one step closer to controlling the Universe!
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 5:58 am
Thanks for the wallpaper, Simon! I just looked at it from the hall outside my office. Very cool! What’s the program? I’m sure we poor PC users can’t adapt it to our scaled-down needs, but in case I get a real computer some day….And I don’t know about everyone else, but I do read your blog and am generally moved to thought, at the very least. :-)
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 8:25 am
i’m so lazy…..instead of actually standing up, i just rolled back in my office chair! = ) great pic though! xx
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 8:37 am
tilted the screen of my lap top so my bro across the room could see it (i got up, too)!
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 10:12 am
I found Erin immediately with really short hair in her classic sweater! I looked closer and found ROY too. But I have no clue where I may be. I’m too brown I guess ;)
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 10:22 am
You found Erin? And Roy? How can you see that?
Okay, I’m getting my glasses…no, I’m getting Albert’s glasses!
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 10:23 am
No good. Now I’m going to get on my computer because the monitor is clearer.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 10:28 am
Okay, maybe I saw Erin. I did see quite a few of you, though. Very cool.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 1:46 pm
ello
Wrote the following comment on Jun 14, 2005 at 7:12 pm
Your blog is really creative, really enjoying it and will come back again (but sleep is important)…great job on the flag by the way. Wish I weren’t such a technophobe and add some snazzy bits to a blog like this.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 15, 2005 at 7:01 am
Aww, Renata, thats such a cool comment. I’m going to print the picture in a large format and see what it looks like. I made another one of another American flag but it hasn’t turned out nearly as good I don’t think. I have another one to make too. I want a decent Mosaic of an American flag featuring pictures I took in America. It’s just an artsy idea.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 15, 2005 at 9:21 am
karen, could you like me to uplaod and even bigger version of the mosaic for you to look at. One where the little pictures are bigger? Of I could just email you the entire 5Mb picture! :-)
Wrote the following comment on Jun 15, 2005 at 5:46 am
My Gosh Simon. That was absolutely amazing. I loved it. It actually stirred me emotionally. Mostly because it was just so artisitic. It also made me think of some of the things you’ve said about our lovely USA. How you love it and how you’ve felt disappointed at times by us, as a nation. As I saw it, I thought of, yes, i definitely see the US flag, but a distorted flag. The image was clear, but yet filled with “static”. It made me think of the love I have for my country and also of the confusion I have with some of the things we’re doing right now. When I read that it was a compiliation of your photos… wow!
Great job Simon!
Wrote the following comment on Jun 15, 2005 at 8:22 am
hahahaha, nothing personal?
Wrote the following comment on Jun 15, 2005 at 9:00 am
Simon, in answer to your question, I did look at the bigger picture. I just had to do it with older eyes. And if anybody wants to know, that is probably the most frustrating thing about middle age – the eyesight problems that come with the territory.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 16, 2005 at 6:00 am
LOL!!!! Oh Pam, babe that has to be the best typo. ‘Fag day’ in America LOL! We’re not talking smokes here either babe. Over there a fag isn’t a ciggeratte :-)
I think you missed the L. The 14th was ‘flag day’ (and no, my post was purely coincidental).
Wrote the following comment on Jun 16, 2005 at 7:45 am
Karen, the big big version is online for you at http://www.simonjones.co.uk/mosaic-big.jpg. It’s 2 and a bit Mb so it may take a few moments to load.Right now I am working on a much better one. I’ll post that when it’s done.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 16, 2005 at 2:55 am
Did you know that the 14th was ‘fag day’ in America? So your post was very apt.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 16, 2005 at 2:56 am
Oh dammit! I meant ‘flag day’. Ooops.
Wrote the following comment on Jun 16, 2005 at 5:45 am
fag day? or flag day? LOL.
That would be awesome to see the entire pic if you could.
still lol
Wrote the following comment on Jun 16, 2005 at 9:56 am
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Thanks Simon!