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Nothing says that without this 1880s painting, smartphones wouldn't exist today

Nothing might be acting a little tongue-in-cheek by saying that without this painting, the smartphone wouldn't exist.

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By Alan Friedman

Published: Aug 31, 2025, 11:52 PM

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Nothing

Yes, we know that Nothing is a mobile device company on the cutting-edge. You can't name your company Nothing and not roam a bit off the beaten path. The CEO, Carl Pei, left a successful smartphone company he co-founded (OnePlus) to do it again with Nothing. And since Pei has the brilliant X username of @GetPeid, tacking the genius tag on him is not too farfetched.

Did A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande-Jatte lead to the invention of the smartphone?

Yes. It led to the creation of pixel-based displays.

18.18%

No. There is no proof that this was an influence.

81.82%

Nothing has recently released a YouTube video that is quite amazing. According to the company, smartphones would not exist without a painting called A Sunday on La Grande Jatte that was created by Goerges-Pierre Seurat in the 1880s. This is only a myth, of course, because the technology to create smartphones obviously did not exist back then. Even if the painting had nothing to do with smartphones and didn't even inspire them, there is still a fascinating story that you should hear.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte showed people relaxing on a Sunday along the banks of the Seine River. Among the characters painted relaxing that day were:

Women with parasols and bustles
Soldiers
A man in a top hat
A little girl in white, looking straight at the viewer
Even a monkey on a leash (a pet for many at the time)

If you look closely at the painting, you'll notice that the figures in the painting were made up of dots. Kusdt 25 at the time, Seurat created a style known as pointillism using dots of different colors. When viewed from a distance, the colors of the dots were blended together by our brains to produce a "coherent image." This is the same scientific process behind the use of pixels on today's smartphone screens.

Other discoveries back then helped create paintings with colors that appeared more vibrant. This led to the creation of the color wheel, which is a tool used at Nothing to create devices that stand out. It also shows how interconnected art, science, and technology really are.

As Nothing says, "So, the next time you're looking at your smartphone, just remember it took centuries of innovations, breakthroughs in science and art, and countless generations of brilliant, driven minds, all leading to the device you are holding in your hands right now.,,and you use it to watch porn."

Just to reiterate, there is no proof that this painting motivated anyone involved in the creation of the smartphone. Still, the painting, and the style used to create it, remain fascinating to even smartphone enthusiasts who champion today's products and discoveries.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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