Here, in the frame, you can see a fly is flying through by a dead frog, flowers buds in the pot starting slowly, Van Gogh Sunflowers changing the angle with the sun. As well as the Italian paintings Sleeping Venus, which was painted in 1510, the Venus in the painting still sleeps, but this time you can see her from time to time writhing about sleeping posture and you can even hear her breathing slightly.
Yes, although they seem like classical paintings exhibited in the museum, but giving a closer look here, the dilapidated frame is filled with high-resolution screen, which texture looks enough real one as drawing paper. Behind the frame, wires wrap around, access to power down the corner, and connect to the program in the computer nearby. And these are the mysteries of the resurrection of paintings.
Letting solidified oil paintings back to the original scene where the painter saw, and letting the still images move, this is the 21st century version of the plug, classical oil painting art. It is Robert Carter and Nick Carter, the two contemporary British artists, who build the lives of these classical paintings. The couple partner, cooperated with the film company, had made classical paintings alive by analysis and design.
"Our job is to make antique and new technologies grafted together, and this is the best way to move forward the development of classical art." Nick said, "People were worried that plug classical art will damage the art itself, but now people are more and more willing to embrace the new technology."
In order to give a life to classical paintings, the Carters had spent a few years on researching. They dug out the famous paintings, The Bottle Flower inside the Window, which was painted by old An Puluo Matthews Bos Machado, and Sleeping Venus, which was by Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione. The Carters had these paintings analyzed and scanned, and then cooperated with video effects company to make 3D animation. As a fan of Vincent van Gogh, they put Van Gogh famous painting Sunflowers into 3D printing, then had came out with a copper pot flowers what was exactly looks the same like the painting Sunflowers.
Still Life Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers 1888
"In the museum, the average time that was spent on a painting is only six seconds, so we hope the viewers can take a careful observation to every detail of every painting." Nick said.
To achieve their goals, they make the flowers stay motionless originally, then start opening up over time. The caterpillars climb along the stems, butterflies fly from one side of the frame and stop at the petals flapping its wings. They also transform a dead frog painting, combined with biological corrosion-related data, accurately presenting the scene since the death of a frog for three hours and displaying on the canvas screen which is in the frame.
"In order to make the painting scene alive, we need to carefully study every organ of the frog to truly understand and reproduce the whole process of the frog's corrosion." Nick said, "The way every frame starts and ends requires repeated simulations reproduce. In this way, we can reproduce a real death of a frog in our oil painting."
The classical oil paintings integrated by the new technology not only reproduce the past life, but also to solve the problem which can't be solved in the past. Painting steal has been a big problem troubling art collectors for a long time, but the Carters said , although these reproducing life paintings are stored in a computer program, but it can’t be stolen by just" copy + paste". "Each frame is encrypted, and every flight path of the butterfly in every picture is not the same". "These paintings are unique, only operating in a particular environment, and no painting thieves can steal it."
Thus, with the help of modern technology, classical oil paintings shows a completely different look in the British Museum, the sun shines cafes in Van Gogh's painting, gradually lengthen its shadow over time, flowers in glass bottles gradually open, if you get close enough, you can even hear the sound of the moment it bloom.
Although many people think that digitizing the classical painting is a interference to tradition, but in my opinion, standing in the frame which looked almost split looking at Van Gogh's solidified face , I still want to have a moment when screens in front of me can return to the past, the characters in the painting can regain to life and take us back to scenes of life hundreds of years ago , to see the customers in the cafe under the sun, to see Venus sleeping under a tree, to see Van Gogh blinking at us.
But what to pay attention is that you should prepare fully before the visit. Nick used to stand in front of these new works to see the reaction of the viewers. He said he often see unprepared viewers, eating a sandwich while watching the exhibition, are scared with mouthful choking when they see the sleeping venus breathing and could not stop coughing standing in front of the sleeping beauty.
Sleeping Beauty
