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ASCII art is the technique of utilising the characters defined by the American Standard Code for Information Interchange standard (ASCII for short). The earliest ASCII art can be traced back to the early 60's, however the idea of using text to create art dates all the way back to the typewriter.

By being limited to only using the 128 different symbols, artists would need to improvise, simple shapes such as a circle became a challenge that needed to be overcome. ASCII art can be seen throughout the early digital world, appearing in Video Games, Operating Systems and even on public chat boards.

I was fascinated by the diversity of the art form, despite clear limitations, it hasn't stopped from exploring the medium to its highest potential.

If you're interested, I highly recommend checking out the ASCII Art Archive which is large collection of archived ASCII images.

TALK TALK

These first couple images mark my first experiments with ASCII, I intentionally kept it simple as I was still adjusting to using ASCII. Fun Fact: this was created entirely in the Notepad app.

REALITY SUCKS

A continuation of my previous experiment, here I was attempting to create different objects. I choose a computer as I felt it would be interesting to visualise it in the ASCII format.

'click' 'click' 'click'

This piece marked a turning point in my ASCII exploration, I began to use a program called Playscii to create my work in. In addition to creating pictures, Playscii also allows you to produce animations. For this piece, I wanted to capture the style of annoying pop-up adverts.

LAUGH OUT LOUD!... OR LOTS OF LOVE?

Originally, I was going to focus this module on comparing having a digital persona to a form of spirital ascension i.e.transcending you're physical form. This piece reflects my original idea, with an all seeing eye staring directly at you... LOL :)

HELLO WORLD