Tech-Pointillism – Politics Plus

Most of us have probably seen George Seurat’s well-known example of Pointillism: “A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte” (1884-1886).

Artist Erik Jensen has updated this process using computer keys from discarded keyboards instead of dots of paint. Employing a flathead screwdriver, he wedges it under the edge and then “peels” them off the board.

(He actually now pays his Mom to strip the keyboards.)

Jensen refers to his art technique as “Tech-Pointillism” with each key becoming a pixel, like on a computer screen. A single project can take up to 40,000 keys – that’s about 460 keyboards! But since he possess over 8,000 discarded QWERTYs, he’s pretty well set “paint-wise”.

He was inspired by a college art class assignment where students had to transform something nobody any longer wanted into something they did. Realizing that we all are familiar with a keyboard and its myriad of applications, he decided to use old and discarded keyboards to transform them into a piece of art.

Since he doesn’t cut any of the keys, each piece must adhere to a strict grid pattern. This makes recreating curves and circles the most difficult part of the creation.

To begin, after stripping the keyboards, he soaks the keys in a soapy solution for at least 24 hours to get rid of dirt, grease, grime, food and cat hairs. Then to stock his palette, he dyes the lighter colored keys in a multitude of colors and shades.

He has a secret dye recipe that the keys are soaked in for varying lengths of time. The longer they stay in the dye, the darker the shade of that color. And he stores all the varying shades of that one color in a plastic bin.

The special feature of his secret dye recipe is that it does not obscure the letters. That’s important to Jensen because if you stand back, you’ll see a masterpiece reproduction. But if you look closer, spelled out with computer keys, you’ll find quotes from the great masters. Like Van Gogh’s quote of “I dream of painting and then I paint my dreams” found in Jensen’s “Starry Night”. (There’s an example in the YouTube video)

Jensen was born deaf (he has since had a cochlear implant) and at one time taught high school art and American Sign Language (ASL). He said that because of his deafness he learned to communicate through his art. Consequently, he believes art is his first language, and English is his second.

He always turns his cochlear implant off when he’s creating: “I love silence. Silence is my music.” And clearly he gets a big kick out of his unique brand of creativity. Why, some of his creations are even edible – like this Pablo Picasso portrait: