Fukuda-Style Image Tiling

The authors are inspired by the process of revisiting historical artwork and extracting design ideas that inspire creative collaboration and exploration of new visual design media. This article provides an instructional case study in facilitating such creative expansion. Shigeo Fukuda's (1932–2009) Mona Lisa's Hundred Smiles decomposes the original Mona Lisa into regions of two contrasting colors, creating the illusion of a blocky grayscale image. We do not know how Fukuda created his image. It originated in 1970, and we hence assume it was done manually. A half a century later, computing provides new possibilities to recreate, modify, and extend this technique without having to resort to painful, manual work. This motivated us to explore the visual space that Fukuda opened with his work. The authors revisit his work and describe how to create this effect with various extensions and creative applications.