Frequently Asked Questions
What is a picsel?
A picsel is a single pixel on a shared canvas of one million points. It costs €1. When you acquire one, you choose its exact position on the canvas, select a fragment from eight centuries of art history, and assign a directive — a weight between content and style — that tells AION how to interpret your choice. It is the smallest possible unit of authorship in the work.
What is AION?
AION is an AI system trained on 800 years of visual art. It has studied every major movement, rupture, and grammar of form in Western art history. It knows what has been done. The First Manifesto is the first time it is being asked to synthesize from what one million people collectively want — not from what any single artist intends.
What is the content/style directive?
When you choose your fragment, you set a scale from 0 to 100. At one end, your choice influences what the final work represents — its content. At the other, it influences how it is rendered — its style. The position you choose is a real aesthetic decision. The aggregate of one million such decisions is the instruction AION receives.
What is the difference between individual and square picsels?
Individual picsels cover quantities from 1 to 8. Each one is independent — placed separately, with its own fragment and its own directive. A square picsel begins at 9 and exists only as a perfect square: 3×3, 4×4, and so on up to 30×30. A square occupies a single contiguous block on the canvas, with one image scaled to fill the entire area. The larger the square, the more unified and visible your presence in the final work.
Can I choose where on the canvas my picsel goes?
Yes. After selecting your quantity, you navigate the live canvas and choose your exact location. The canvas updates in real time — you can see where others have already placed their picsels and position yours accordingly.
What happens after I place my picsel?
You receive a digital postcard immediately — your name, country, chosen fragment, and position on the canvas, permanently recorded. When the canvas closes and AION produces the final work, you receive a second postcard: a before and after of your picsel, showing what you chose and what AION made of your choice.
Can I see my picsel on the canvas?
Yes. After purchase, you can navigate to your exact position on the canvas at any time. The canvas remains permanently navigable — every picsel has a record of its before and after, with the name and country of the person behind it.
How many picsels are there in total?
One million. Currently 3,361 have been placed, from 12 countries, drawing from a pool of 413 artworks. 1,045,727 remain available.
What happens when all one million picsels are placed?
AION synthesizes the final work — a single painting that no one can predict, including those who designed the system. The result is emergent: not the sum of one million choices, but a transformation of them. The final work is then sold at auction and permanently archived.
Will the final work look like the fragments people chose?
No. The fragments are not assembled into a collage. They are instructions. AION reads the aggregate of all directives — thematic concentrations, stylistic preferences, geographic distribution — and synthesizes from them a unified work with its own formal coherence. The connection between any individual choice and the final painting is real but not visible. That is the nature of emergence.
Do I need an account to participate?
You sign in with your email — no password needed. A magic link is sent to your inbox. Your picsels are linked to your account and accessible any time.
Is this a limited campaign?
Yes. The First Manifesto is the inaugural campaign of PICSEL — a cultural institution with seven campaigns planned in total, each built around a distinct anthropological question. Once the canvas reaches one million picsels, the campaign closes permanently. It will not be repeated.
What is The First Manifesto asking?
What is the impulse that makes a human being want to create something that did not exist before? The campaign does not answer this question. It records, at scale and in permanent form, how one million people engaged with it.