Description
Monster-sized, old-school Jeff project – only 8 copies left!
Opossum.png is a book and website that makes physical a single, low-resolution image. In early 1995, a group of strangers assembled online to develop what would become the PNG file format. One of the first images to be encoded in this new format was a pixelated photograph of an opossum, taken by programmer and PNG contributor Glenn Randers-Pehrson.
The entire contents of this PNG file are presented in a 968-page book, listed in the various formats required to be read by a computer. It also includes a wooden storage case (note: the boxes may look slightly different than what’s in the photo) and a printed copy of Randers-Pehrson’s photograph. A website accompanies the project, containing a full set of annotations for the file, delving into the technical workings of the PNG format and the people who made it.
Created in collaboration with Black Rock Press at the University of Nevada, Reno as part of the School of the Arts visiting artist program
Read lots (lots!) more about this project here: https://jeffreythompson.org/opossum.png
