There are numerous traditional and good ways to watch movies. You can buy a Blu-ray, rent a digital copy, and thanks to MSCHF’s latest experiment, you can watch it in a way that was never intended to be seen: as moving ASCII art in your PC’s Command Prompt app, as reported by The edge.
The company has just made its debut ASCII theater, a project that streams a new full-length film for free every day. The catch (or, presumably, its defining feature) is that the film’s images are rendered entirely in ASCII, the text format best known for the detailed images it can create. What will be served on launch day? None other than Greta Gerwig Barbie
The way ASCII Theater works is as strange as the project itself. Head over to the ASCII Theater websitethen copy the code string shown at the top of the window, paste it into Command Prompt (or Terminal if you’re using a Mac), then press Enter and the movie will immediately start over.
GIF: Warner Bros. Pictures/ASCII Theater via Polygon
I’ll look at the beginning Barbie in the ASCII Theater was an interesting but not a pleasant experience. I became more and more fascinated by the ASCII characters themselves, constantly changing shape and color to contribute to the overall picture, which itself was difficult to see unless you reduced the window size. If I hadn’t already seen the film, it would be hard for me to tell what actually happens on screen. I’m looking at the whole thing principle
If you, like everyone watching this, are wondering how long this experiment can last before it’s shut down for copyright infringement, then that’s something The Verge article dives in. Amrita Khalid interviewed Xiyin Tang, an assistant professor of law at UCLA, who told them: “Given that the typical cost of hiring a law firm and filing a lawsuit will likely exceed this amount, it is unclear what financial benefit a studio would have for a lawsuit.” especially given the limited running time and exposure (24 hours) that each film will have.”
The MSCHF’s marketing director told The Verge that the ASCII Theater should stay running “until it closes.”
