Not that this isn't awesome (it is), but by using the origami to replicate pixel art, it ceases to be an actual tessellation. If all of the pixels here were "pushed" rather than "popped," it would be a tessellation of squares; as it is, it's just a work of art.

...Heh, heh, heh! Tweak one of these to represent the Mooninites, make dozens of copies, and see how long it takes for the Boston PD to declare a terror alert!

As an editor, the usage of "tessellation" here is just fine, as it's acceptable to use it to refer to refer to the forming of any mosaic pattern.

However, the title has the key word spelled wrong (you dropped an l).

Meanwhile, the actual invader is pretty snazzito.

The word "tessellation" is certainly allowable if the intent is to imply a mosaic of some sort, which the photo displays. But that's just me.

And probably the embarrassment of posting a comment after thinking that the first comment didn't go through. Ha! I'm an ass!!

Well, in the origami tessellation world, we normally refer to anything folded using the same general techniques as "a tessellation", even though it might not be one specifically. Part of it is that John could fold this so it is an endless repeating pattern of space invaders, but he hasn't due to matters of scale (and believe me, that would take a seriously long time!)

Part of the fun of creating such things is stepping beyond the strict geometric patterns that might seem obvious, and seeing what else can be done within the confines of a single sheet of paper.

So strictly, yes, this isn't a tessellation itself, but in the small niche world of folks who create these sort of things we tend to just refer to them all generally. Specifics get kind of complicated :)

By far my favorite piece from John McKeever is this "Stellated Dodecagon":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79004678@N00/114651429/