PXL DEX (Pixel Deck) is a series of fully on-chain real time animations created by Kim Asendorf where each pixel is a token in itself. PXL DEX is the first artwork within the PXL ecosystem, an ongoing work series to experiment with pixels as utility tokens. The collection consists of 256 NFTs that are deployed via a custom Smart Contract on the Ethereum Mainnet.
PXL DEX consists of 256 works, each an abstract 3D animation called a Deck that can be purchased as an NFT through a custom website. The animations consist of a matrix of colored pixels in an isometric grid over a black background. The points pulse, shift and warp in ways that seem orderly, but exhibit no discernible pattern. The distortions are endless, but they never loop. Each piece has a distinct color palette, but these hues are shown only as dots that dance over the dark, the pulsing animations of each Deck are insubstantial, thin, and delicate. The precise density of the matrix of dots is a variable that can be changed in a number of ways. First, the animations can be manipulated on the screen by scrolling to zoom or clicking and dragging the virtual objects to rotate them above the black void, there are also preset “camera angles” and a viewing mode that automatically rotates. Rotation allows the viewer to align and overlap the pulsing pixels, creating clusters of symmetry and density. Zooming in and out changes the overall size of the virtual object, but the individual pixels each remain the same size, so that making the object smaller makes it appear more dense, while zooming in and making it larger makes it even more diffuse, airy, and barely visible. The density of pixels can also be manipulated within an individual Deck. Collectors can determine how many points the animation will contain when they purchase it, by determining how many PXL tokens to include. A low number will yield an expression of the animation algorithm that is barely visible, while approaching the mint maximum of 500,000 pixels will produce an iteration that is dense and fuzzy. An additional 500.000 PXL tokens can be minted by the Deck holder through a special smart contract function after the initial purchase. Even if the NFT later changes hands, the 500,000 PXL allowance remains.
Kevin Buist, 2025
The code has been written in GLSL (WebGL2) and JavaScript. It doesn’t use any third-party libraries, but it makes use of GLSL Simplex noise and Perlin noise implementations by Stefan Gustavson and Ian McEwan and fractional Brownian motion (source).
Controls: h-help; i-initialize; r-rotate; t-reset; 0-9-view; a-auto; x-x2
