Make: Sales Manager Brigitte Kunde shared this amazing build with us, spotted online by a friend of hers. Pete Fecteau used over 4,000 Rubik’s Cubes to create this 18′ 6″ x 9′ 8″ mosaic of Dr. Martin Luther King. Apparently Rubik Cube artwork is a “thing.” There’s Rubik’s Einstein, Lincoln, Sitting Bull, Kathy Lee and Hoda(?). There’s even a name for the genre: Rubikcubism.
Here are the technical details of the build from Pete:
The mosaic is made of 4,242 officially licensed Rubik’s Cubes. It measures 19′ x 8’6″ x 2.25″ (5.8m x 2.6m x 5.7cm ). It weighs roughly 1000 pounds (454kg). Each cube has been “reversed solved” or twisted so that one of the faces maps it’s nine stickers into the total image, 38,178 stickers total. The construction process took a little over 40 hours and the final installation to about five and a half hours with 6 volunteers helping. The cubes were rented through the You Can Do The Cube organization. The mosaic was on display during the 2010 ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan USA from September 22nd to October 10th. There were roughly 30,000 people who came to view the mosaic during that time. “Dream Big” placed in the top 50 out of 1,700+ entries. The mosaic was left intact for a month after the competition in an attempt to sell it. The pending sale did not materialize and the mosaic was disassembled in late November and the cubes were shipped back to their originating points.
See and read more on Pete Fecteau’s Website
254 thoughts on “I Have a (Puzzling) Dream”
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What a spectacular accomplishment! Did the artist use a computer program to configure the images/cubes?
Good question, i would like to know as well. What i would do is open up Photoshop, and set a palette of colors that match the Rubik’s cube. Then import a photo such that you want and determine how wide and tall you can shrink it down without losing too much quality. You make sure the pixels in the image are converted to your color palette and now each pixel represents a square on the cube. Make sure the math works and then have fun trying to make all the parts with 4000 or so cubes… I would say its less art and more technical work, which is the only thing i could ever do so i still think its awesome.
man that ain,t no rubix cube thats a pacman. don’t you know frogger.
No Jason……his work is as u see it…..real art….i know a few people who can solve em cube puzzles in less than a minute
good job bro.
How much did you get paid…if you don’t mind me asking?
$0
fantastic feat, congratulations. noble motif aswell.
I don’t think he would get paid. I mean, it was his art work and I guess he wanted to put it in the art museum. Or he got asked to put it in there. but He wouldn’t get paid anything for that.
…then the night attendant gets bored, solves all the cubes and puts them back.
what does the back look like?
david alan coe
The back didn’t look like anything. It looked like scrambled cubes.
Isn’t that really all the front is also, scrambled cubes?
Man, if that’s scrambled, think of how awesome it will be when “unscrambled”. NO IT’S TRULY A WORK OF ART.
lol – You clever fecker.
I thought the back looked like a psychedelic negative?
:-)
LOL :)
A ‘negative’ of the front, i’d assume…
Impressed. Now, if there was another image on he other side, THEN I’d be super impressed.
It would be very awesome but VERY VERY hard to do that. Hahaha! Yea. I would be super impressed too! :)
Hi
lol;
@ Rex
Probably it’s too difficult otherwise
There should be an image on the back side and it should be the negative of the front i would imagine. think about it, if the artist used standard cubes with each color having a direct polar opposite then the back image should be the “negative” of the front.
That’s not how a Rubik’s cube works. The centers of each face are immovable, but otherwise you can change which squares are opposite of each other
pretty good stumble ;) I like it.
Already been done.
http://www.space-invaders.com/rubikubism.html
He did this for Artprize in Grand Rapids, MI in 2010 like it says on his site.
I did see this at the ArtPrize in Grandrapids, MI a few years ago. this is fantastic
those pieces are very different from what hes done here…
Cool, I had never seen a composition made with the Rubik’s Cube, who knows how much it cost. ..
Greetings
FABTASTIC. THIS IS REAL
CONTEMPORARY ART
An unsuccessful art work. ‘Martin Luther King’ and ‘Rubik cubes’, how do these go on to become something new, i.e. an artwork. I like it but, I’m feeling, hidden shallows
I love talented people !!
man this is something that deserves much more publicity.. what motivated you to create something like this? its funny i just gave my first HONEST effort to do one of these damn things lol.. hit me back man..
what an amazing stumble!
my name is Erin too!
But, do you live in Eire?
Props. Great Stumble.
Being from Grand Rapids, Art Prize is amazing to see. This is so cool!
what led the artist to this idea? how did he come up with the concept, and how long did it take for him to not only design the specs, but actually work the cubes to get the colors in the precise spaces? I am amazed. Excellent work!
Wonderful artwork! I am utterly amazed at this man’s talent. But 4000 Rubik’s Cubes would cost so much money! I hope he bought them in bulk! (Even more, I hope someone bought his artwork for more than he paid for all of those cubes!)
ive been wanting to do this but ran into issues with acquiring such a large amount of cubes. any tips? how did you do it?
ART!!!
Just wondering how much 4,000 rubik’s cubes might cost and where did you buy them/ direct from factory? Wholesale?
Fascinating Work!
AWESOME! Great artwork of this great man!
great example of hard work and concept !
OMG, you are real good!
did you plan and fill in the pattern with color in each pixel before start?
Reblogged this on Quadhirababil's Blog.
very nice
Crazy.
have u considered upgrading to 4×4 0r 5×5 for better picture quality?
amazing work
that’s crazy. he must be artistic AND autistic. http://rawfulnews.com/
That’s awful! Why would you say something like that?!?!? My brother is autistic and I don’t apreciate you saying stuff like that! That is rude and uncalled for! Wow! I can’t believe you said that!
Sorry didn’t mean any harm.
You are mad because your brother can’t count cards like Ray Babbit :-)
I feel you, autism is portraied like this amazing skill that can produce spectacular result, not like the disease it really is.
Reblogged this on Versatile Blogger Award and commented:
What an amazing accomplishment — art from puzzles.
Wow, this is unique!!! Just fabulous!!
man.. this is too cool. not only did you have to map out the colors for the picture as a whole, but you had to then configure all the rubix cubes to those colors! how time consuming… props on your patience.
Shopped
You wish…
Did he died?
That’s over 40,000 dollars worth of cubes. Awesome work though.
Reblogged this on TheSaltyDawg.
this is ahhhmazing!
wow that is cool must have taken a long time
I wonder how look it took to create such a beautiful piece!
It seems you can buy a cube for between $8 and $15, so an expensive proposition… over $30k for materials…
I don’t think this is what MLK was dreaming about.
Wonderful!
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Cheers
man to crazy :)
I’m the artist who did “Dream Big”. Thank you for all the kind words. If you would like to support me further please check out my Kickstarter project for my next Rubik’s Cube mosaic… Albert Einstein http://kck.st/GrayMatters
Is this really, really, for real? WOW talk about creativity and persistence. Great artwork!
Fantastic, the clarity achieved in all three facial variations is superb.
whoaaa :O thts soo…cool :)
One of the coolest things I’ve seen
Absolutely Phenomenal!
The like button doesn’t seem to be working for me today, so I will just say that I like it manually.
….I like it.
I think I would have just moved the stickers…
This is amazing! I can’t believe that you did this! It’s so cool! I have a friend who can complete a cube in under a minute! Its amazing to watch how his hands move. Can you do that? I’m sure that you spend a TON of money. I hope for your sake that you got it all back plus some. Cause you deserve it. Wonderful work. But Why Martin Luther King? Why not a picture of your slef or of a tree or something?
That’s called rubikubism or Rubik’s cube pixel art. Read that article:
http://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/rubiks-art-mosaiks-paintings-wallpapers-rubikcubism/
Great Stumble!! :)
How many time does the artist need to do this accomplishment?
brilliant :D
WOW no artist people have some serious time
This art work reminds me of my own 3D artwork…….. victoriablak.com
its just insanely fab, well done.
Fucking amazing! Yours is the best I’ve seen online :-)
wow, thats really creative
Reblogged this on You are born to be free. and commented:
I wish I could be as patient as him.
WOW!!!!!
Wow, so wonderful more grease to your elbow.
Just imagine if someone dropped it while in transit :/
I saw this at the Art Prize competition in Grand Rapids, MI in 2010. It was just amazing!
An amazing way to trivialize a true American hero.
Found this through StumbleUpon – such a fantastic idea! How long did the project take from conception to completion?
This is pure brilliance – and pure love!
Ha how creative1
That is impressive. Thanks for posting.
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wow,AMAZING
I think this was an amazing piece. It’s hard enough trying to get the same color on the same side much less putting it together to create an unforgettable piece of art. AWESOME!!!
this is really Shocked me…!! this is amazing work.Good very good.Keep it up and more post your more amazing thinks.
One Rubix cube costs $10. That’s a $40,000 image of MLK without artistic value attached!
Wow, amazing!! Now, that is definitely true art! That must’ve taken a long as time to do!
You have copied Space Invader’s idea here. Not very original but very anal! Well done!
good art it’s amazing……….
Reblogged this on Mojetrendy and commented:
Nie pamiętam kiedy ostatnio grałem kostką Rubika?.
Reblogged this on I am othello Jordan & who R U :).
Reblogged this on How R U I am Antony Jon.
nice puzzle
Fabulous !!!
This is an amazing piece of art!
4,000 Rubik’s Cubes to create this mosaic of Dr. Martin Luther King… This is just incredible !!!
Great work
The Rubiks cube manufacturers must love this guy. He’s probably putting all their kids through college.
This was AWESOME!!!!! Keep doing AMAZING things. Found this on “Stumble”.
It is cool and very prototype , it reminds me some how the Byzantine mosaic of the Greek orthodox Churches . It is the same logic with the main difference that in a mosaic every piece it is added color by color but in this occasion the artist adds 6 colors every time in the whole picture which is actually very difficult technique.
Without a Pc i don’t think he could manage to make it !
Mind Tingling
OMG!!!!!!!!!
Nice work
WOW. The patience and the precision. Must cost a fortune to get one. But much respect to the time and effort spent on making this. AWESOME work
whuuu thats cool man ……….. crazy:p
waaawww amazing….:D
Amazing Art.
Awesome Art.Thanks…