Digital Art Museum
 
Mark WILSON    
 

Practice

 

   

Wilson in his studio, 1988

Mark Wilson has pursued a unique approach to the technologies available to him since his first experiments with the computer in 1980. He uses a technique that he calls 'pixel mapping', which is a way of solving the problem, inherent in the early graphic displays, of the mis-match between the display and the plotted print. The plotter is capable of addressing a hugely greater number of points on a large sheet of paper, than the computer screen can display, providing at the same time the potential for much subtler line and area. By using the pixels on screen to represent whole geometrical elements, such as squares or circles, rather than a single dot, Wilson has created his own technique and visual language.

More recently computers can store high-resolution pixel maps (bitmaps) that come closer in detail to the final print, and at the same time archival inkjet technologies have emerged. Wilson has adapted his own style to take advantage of these developments, in a way that is a little similar to the 'virtual plotter' of Jean-Pierre H�bert.