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
Please note: The program for the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is still in progress.
We are currently preparing all the information for the website and plan to put the full program online in the coming days – stay tuned!