A thing with black, white and red images

The object, with a grey square on a red background in its screen. The object, with black lines on a grey background, and a red blob in the top right corner. A closeup of the left side of the object. The layers of brown cardboard with the thin slices of black paper between them, can be clearly seen. The object, with a dark red square on a grey background on its screen. The object, showing a light red blob on a dark grey background on its screen. The object, showing a wide, flat rectangle on a light grey background

In 2013 I told my server to generate an image for me. An image of a random coloured rectangle on a random coloured background. Then I told it to do this once a day, every day, and it has been doing that ever since. Along the way I told it to generate different types of images as well. Images of blobs for instance. My server has generated more than twenty thousand images so far.

The object, showing black lines on a grey background, and a red blob in the top right corner. The object, showing a dark, almost black square on a very light background. A closeup of the cable entering the device. The layers of cardboard can be clearly seen. The object, showing black lines that slowly turn into white lines, that slowly morph into a very dark blob in the top left corner. The object, showing a very thin, high, light rectangle, on a very dark background. The object showing a gray square in the top right corner, on a red background.

I put all these images into a raspberry pi with a three coloured e-paper display. It only knows the colours black, white and red. So in order to display these images, I had to write a script that translates every pixel of these very, very colourful images into a red, a white or a black image. It works, and the results have a pleasant graphical quality.

Every fifteen minutes a different image is shown with either a black, or a white background. So it takes a while before you get to see the same image. To be exact, you'll never see exactly the same image: every time a pixel is shown, the script decides if it’s going to be white, red or black, there is a random factor at work.

The object from the front. On its display there’s a light square with a clear dark outline, on a light grey background. The object from the front. The image is red, with some faint white lines. On the right side there are some dark grey lines. The object from the front. On its display there’s a light wide rectangle on a dark red background. The object from the front. On its display there are contrasting white lines on a black background. The lines morph into a blob. A closeup of the left side of the object. The layers of brown cardboard with the thin slices of black paper between them, can be clearly seen. The back of the object. It’s black, with four tiny screws in it.

The frame is made from this very nice 2mm white cardboard with a black surface. When you cut it with a laser cutter it gets this brown, wood-like colour, which is enhanced when you glue the sheets together. It looks good.

The object standing next to an old, blue rotary phone. A closeup of the right bottom of the object.

I make these things with black, white and red images to order. They will cost somewhere around four to five times the value of the hardware. If you want one of these objects, or if you have any questions or comments, pick up the phone and dial my number send me an email. Don’t worry, I really like getting these kinds of emails.