An experimental web-based camera app that captures pictures in the form of pixel art consisting of Mandarin Chinese characters.

[ Launch app | View source code on GitHub ]

2018 | Mandarinizer exhibited at Shanghai Education Expo, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China	2022 | Mandarinizer exhibited at Sikka Art and Design Festival, Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, Dubai, UAE

Mandarinizer started as a command-line application that converts an image file to a text file containing a grid of Mandarin Chinese characters that gives the impression of the original image. It was one of a series of experiments that served as a proof of concept that the impression of an image can still be formed when pixels are replaced by a variety of different elements according to how dark each pixel is.

Early version of Mandarinizer running in a terminal emulator

Later, I expanded its use to videos, and then to webcam stream so it can show a “Mandarinized” image of what the webcam sees in real time. Since it only had a command-line interface, you could only use it in a terminal emulator, such as the Terminal app on macOS. Eventually, I decided to completely rewrite it to be a web app so it can easily run on a mobile phone. In addition, you can enter your own characters to be used by Mandarinizer.

Mandarinizer running in a mobile browser
[ Launch app ]

That made it possible for me to keep Mandarinizer in my pocket all the time, so I took a lot of pictures with it. Here is a selection of them:

Chanel (2018), shot with Mandarinizer	Gucci (2018), shot with Mandarinizer

Hugo Boss (2018), shot with Mandarinizer	Dior (2018), shot with Mandarinizer

Apple (2018), shot with Mandarinizer	Starbucks (2018), shot with Mandarinizer

Untitled (2018), shot with Mandarinizer

Exhibitions

2022 | Sikka Art and Design Festival, Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, Dubai, UAE

2018 | Shenzhen Design Week, Shenzhen, China

2018 | Shanghai Education Expo, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China

Press

2022 | Chaves, Alexandra: “Sikka turns 10: Dubai art and design festival returns after two-year hiatus”, The National, Mar. 16, 2022

2018 | “机器时代即将到来｜新锐艺术家专访” [Emerging Artist Interview: the Age of Robots is Around the Corner], MANA, July 16, 2018

2018 | Qiu, Wenhan: “谁说‘码农’不能搞艺术？上海纽约大学这门专业让学生大胆‘跨界’” [Why Can’t Coders Create Art? This Major at NYU Shanghai Allows Students to Bravely Cross Disciplines], Shanghai Observer, Apr. 16, 2018