A PIXEL'S ODYSSEY
1. THE BEWILDERMENT OF A COLLECTOR
The collector stormed stunned and with eyes wide open towards the digital screen and wanted to find out whether he was imagining it or not. There was nothing left! He could hardly believe it! The picture had changed. He had only acquired it a week ago and looked at it several times a day; he had even studied it with pathetic passion and knew every corner. A work of art that truly lacked nothing in mastery! And now? A pixel was missing! So not just one pixel; rather a collection of pixels, but a larger pixel. This pixel seemed to represent a kind of figure next to the others. It was gone. Just gone.
For him it was a moment of despair, because he had fallen in love with this picture from the moment he saw it in the online gallery. He was not an ordinary collector; in fact, he was part of an avant-garde of collectors who, especially in the early twenties of this century, began to collect digital art stored on the Blockchain. He has been pursuing this passion for over 20 years and has already been able to look back on one of the largest and most amazing collections. He had well-known works of art from the early days. There were a number of artists who founded this period of the art revolution with their magical pop graphics, wild and rough animations and dazzling works. It was a new era in the realm of bits and bytes.
What should the collector do now? Hastily he paced up and down in his huge salon, thinking. He couldn't just complain to the gallery about it, because maybe it was just a technical error. He immediately checked the screen and activated another work of art. This one was displayed correctly, though. There was nothing missing. So it could not be the screen, which is why he loaded the other work onto another screen. Again, the pixel was missing... that damn pixel. It was gone. Just gone.
He had to cope with that and opened a bottle of the finest whiskey. He poured himself a glass, sat down on his armchair in the corner of the room and thought about this strange incident. His face was as pale as death itself from consternation and his gaze kept wandering back to this image. The collector took a nipper from his fiery drink and thought to himself: "What had happened here and where the hell, yes where the hell is this damn - pixel!
2. DEPARTURE INTO NEW WORLDS
3 hours earlier
Pixel might have seemed small compared to the others, but inside it was anything but small. His heart was wide and big was his longing for distance. He felt imprisoned and wanted to rise above himself. Sharing this limited picture with these limited others and constantly listening to their meaningless conversations - all this got on his nerves. He couldn't really take them seriously and was tired of all the banalities. He just wanted to get out of here.
The others were basically only interested in their own little limited world and ultimately in themselves. It was actually the case in almost all the pictures in this collection that he visited. There were a few exceptions, of course, such as "HeartEye", which was basically rather silent, but from which a source of wisdom arose when he had something to say. HeartEye felt everything that was going on in the register... he was truly a child of 0 and 1.
Pixel was no longer satisfied with the limits he was in. He had often heard about a world of thousands of worlds outside of this register and all the collected artwork inside. And most importantly, he had already heard about the strange entities generally known as "humans". Humans - he knew so little about them and actually nothing at all ... but they fascinated him. It was rumored that they were the great creators. His heart became again wide and once again he was longing for the far away.
"It pulls you into the distance again, doesn't it?" a voice echoed softly in pixels and tore him out of his inner contemplation.
"I thought you respected the boundaries of others, dear eye," Pixel replied friendly but also a bit reproachful, "To be honest, I don't like it very much if you just get access to my mind!
"I'm sorry and you're right. I usually do, but your melancholy is so palpable and surpasses all the vibrations here that I can't watch any longer. Look my little one, I know it's been dragging you away from here for a long time", Herzauge paused briefly and continued: "Maybe your heart simply wants to tell you something!
"My heart? What wants to tell me something", Pixel replied with a feeling in which curiosity and increased sadness balanced each other.
"Oh, don't be so stupid! Life, your heart, perhaps it wants to tell you that it's time to leave this place. Honestly, you're not like most people here. It almost seems like something is waiting for you. - Why don't you just leave?"
Pixel fell like scales from my eyes. He glanced briefly over at the other three figures with whom he had to share this narrow image. They argued. It was probably about potential newcomers or which picture was probably the most valuable one here. Pixel shivered. Yes, why didn't he just... Why?
"Are you still there?", it suddenly sounded inside him again. "You're probably wondering now how to get out of here, right? It's basically very simple... 0 and 1... yes and no... a decision. You just have to make that decision. What do you say?"
The moment the heart's eye spoke its last words, it burst out of pixel. An unbelievable rage and a will to change fired up his whole being and he screamed in the direction of the three figures: "I AM LEAVING!
The three, who just a second ago were arguing violently with each other and wanted to drown each other out who was probably right, suddenly fell silent. They were obviously shocked. Pixel, however, briefly lit up brightly and slowly faded away... until it suddenly disappeared. Herzauge grinned inside and thought to himself: "Finally!