Every Color Square (After Malevich)
The computer represents color data for each pixel using 24-bits; 8 bits each for red, green and blue values. The computer can display nearly 17 million colors using this method (2563 = 16,777,216).
Every Color Square shows a square systematically displaying every possible color value from white (255,255,255) to black (0,0,0).
If the animation runs at 30 frames per second (the standard rate for video) it will take six and half days to complete. At 60 frames per second, it should take 3 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes.
When the sequence is completed, it will resemble Kazimir Malevich's 1915 painting Black Square. Malevich's Red Square: Painterly Realism of a Peasant Woman in Two Dimensions should appear roughly 18 minutes through.
The square can also be interpreted as a single large pixel, going through all of its possible iterations.
Technical Information
Every Color Square (After Malevich) was written in Processing and is presented here using Processing.js
Reference Images
Kazimir Malevich. Black Square, 1915.
White on White (on White), 2008.
Links To More Information
Wikipedia:
Kazimir Malevich
Every Icon by John F. Simon, Jr.
Wikipedia:
Truecolor