In this project I considered what it might be like to create an experience that contracts one’s perception instead of augmenting it. Stuck Pixel is an application that runs in the background while you carry out your daily activities on the computer. However, whenever you click a pixel (anywhere) on the screen, it becomes “stuck” at the color value it held when you clicked on it. Furthermore, the pixel can no longer be clicked on. After the stuck pixels become sufficiently bothersome, the user can save out the pixels to a BMP file before exiting through the application window.

My intention was to at create a visualization of a user’s computer habits, while at the same time prohibiting their most repetitive actions and eventually encouraging the user to seek an alternative. Which, in a way, is actually a means of augmenting their experience. In a most extreme case, the resulting pixels could provide a visual depiction of addiction…Facebook or other social media, perhaps? Here’s a quick simulated result of that scenario:

Here are some images from my own experience using the application:

Although it wasn’t my intention, I thought that the resulting image was interesting because it reminds me of a constellation:

The application was written in C# using global mouse hooks and other (kind of hackish) tricks.

References:

Processing Global Mouse and Keyboard Hooks in C#
By George Mamaladze
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/globalhook.aspx?msg=2808928