Ruth Thomas

pp

P I X E L P A R L I A M E N T S ( 1 / 3 )

The European Parliament from 1979 to 2014

Say the European Parliament had 900 seats in each of the eight legislative periods to date (i.e. at the time of the creation of the work).

Increasing the actual number of seats to 900 while maintaining the same percentages held by each of the individual political groups (at the respective European election) gives rise to these fictitious, yet realistic, pixel parliaments.

Each pixel corresponds to one seat, each colour to one group. The number of pixels per colour is fixed, the arrangement is random. There is only one possible colour scheme, whereas the arrangement is one possibility among many.

Each legislative period has its very own colouring. The progression of colours across the eight embroidered pictures shows how the political landscape in Europe has changed over the years.

(Embroidered cotton, 8 works, each 9 x 9 cm, frames 21.5 x 21.5 cm, 2017)

P I X E L P A R L I A M E N T S ( 2 / 3 )

The 2017 European Parliament

Say the current (i.e. at the time of the creation of the work) European Parliament has 10,000 seats.

Increasing the actual number of seats to 10,000 while maintaining the same percentages held by each of the individual political groups (on the 1st of March 2017) gives rise to this fictitious, yet realistic, pixel parliament.

The colours of the stripes at the edges also adhere to the aforementioned ratio; their different visual language forms a transition to a further development of the theme in the work below.

(Embroidered cotton, 30 x 30 x 3 cm, 2017)

P I X E L P A R L I A M E N T S ( 3 / 3 )

The European Parliament from 1979 to 2014

This work shows the European Parliament’s eight legislative periods to date (i.e. at the time of the creation of the work), on the day of each European election.

Each pixel corresponds to one seat, each colour to one political group. The arrangement of the political groups within each legislative period corresponds to the seating order in the European Parliament.

Both works show all eight parliaments. In one, the parliaments are shown separately in chronological order, while in the other, they are combined and arranged according to the individual political groups.

There are only a limited number of ways to divide the total number of seats without remainder. This limits the possible formats, whereas the pattern of stripes freely adapts to any chosen format.

(Embroidered cotton, 2 works, each 10 x 48 cm, frames 20 x 60 cm, 2018)