Pixel Pals is a media installation that translates individual emotional inputs into collective visual output through swarm algorithms. Participants submit “trouble words,” which are matched with “comfort objects” drawn from a crowdsourced database. Pixel fragments, carried by coordinated mini robots, gradually reconstruct images of emotional reassurance. The system remains open to disruption, allowing human interference to co-shape a persistent, adaptive feedback loop of affective calibration.

Pixel Pals / Nuoqing Shen, Yufei Zhang - Photo: Nuoqing Shen, Yufei Zhang
Exhibit
Pixel Pals
Nuoqing Shen (CN), Yufei Zhang (CN)