Thomas Ruff’s pixelated tapestry, Jpeg NY06, is a monument to digital dissemination and the aesthetic possibilities that lay dormant in the endless cycles of data manipulation and mutation playing out across the digital plane. Compressing the data files of predominantly appropriated digital images culled from the Internet, Ruff then enlarges them, grossly diminishing their DPI (dots per inch). Created between 2004 and 2007, Ruff’s Jpegs are a study in defamiliarization and reinvigorated viewership of the overexposed. The Jpegs disrupt the intricate and expanding network of electronic image circulation of their origin, providing the viewer with a welcome moment of still reflection. Expanding and compressing like lungs for the cybernetic age, Ruff’s Jpegs propel us forward across the digital landscape. The final product is a breathtaking blur.

Another print of this image is in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.