Computer Paints New Rembrandt After Old Works Analysised

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Terry Page, Apr 6, 2016.

  1. Terry Page

    Terry Page Supreme Member
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    A team of technologists working with Microsoft and others have produced a 3D-printed painting in the style of Dutch master Rembrandt.

    The portrait was created after existing works by the artist were analysed by a computer.

    A new work was then designed to look as much like a Rembrandt as possible - while remaining an original portrait.

    It was then 3D-printed to give it the same texture as an oil painting.

    "We really wanted to understand what makes a face look like a Rembrandt," Emmanuel Flores, director of technology for the project, told the BBC.

    After they had been digitally tagged by humans, data on Rembrandt's paintings was gathered by computers which discovered patterns in how the Dutch master would, for example, characteristically shape a subject's eyes in his portraits.

    Then, machine-learning algorithms were developed which could output a new portrait mirroring Rembrandt's style.

    To limit the many possible results to a specific type of individual, the computer was asked to produce a portrait of a Caucasian male between the ages of 30 and 40, with facial hair, wearing black clothes with a white collar and a hat, facing to the right.

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  2. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Amazing what computers can do.
     
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  3. Billie Lane

    Billie Lane Veteran Member
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    Well, from an artist's viewpoint , I don't think it looks like a Rembrandt.
    The colours and the lighting are totally bogus.
    The programmers have tried to analyze a face that... looks like a Rembrandt ?
    Rembrandt's faces are not " Rembrandt's Faces ", they are Rembrand'ts unique perception of what lies underneath.
    it is a flat computer-generated imitation of a surface .
    It has no heart , and reveals nothing of the inner person.

    Also, every subject's eyes are unique , no artist characteristically shapes an eye , neither Art nor biology work that way.
    Creativite insight can't be programmed or reconstructed.
     
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  4. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    Funnily enough @Billie Lane ..and believe me I'm far from being any kind of artist or art critic, but that was my first impression too... a totally flat depiction

    That said...it's been 3D textured so perhaps hanging framed as a painting it would be more authentic looking than it does here on a flat screen monitor..
     
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  5. Terry Page

    Terry Page Supreme Member
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    I had completely forgotten this thread, and yes I agree a computer can never create true art, at least not at the moment?
    Thinking about it I guess you can only really appreciate a painting when viewing it in real life, all reproductions/rendering we view in books or on computer screens, have been through a multitude of digital processes before we view them?
    Like @Holly Saunders I am no artist so maybe you have to be one to appreciate the difference?
     
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  6. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Rembrandt - a favourite artist for us and agree with Billie :)
     
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  7. Billie Lane

    Billie Lane Veteran Member
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    @ Bobbie Cole,
    yes you are right Bobbie, you do really need to see a painting close up to appreciate them.
    I was born in Glasgow and at that time Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum was the only Art Gallery in the world to own three original Rembrandt's.
    As a kid I studied them for hours.
    However, photographic and computer reproductions can also make bad paintings look really good.
    Most people have only seen Piet Mondrian's grid-square paintings in photographs and they look meticulously crafted, and precise
    The truth is the opposite , up close the paintings of Mondrian are crude and carelessly painted and the colours muddy.
    Microsoft's technologists could only improve on a Mondrian

    @Bobbie Cole and Hollie Saunders ,
    You don't have to be an Artist to appreciate the difference though, you just need to go and study the originals and then compare.
    Most people who have reasonable eyesight would notice the differences.

    I consider it strange though, that while when viewed first hand Old Masters paintings always look better than photographs or computer images, a lot of modern paintings look far better in the photographs.
     
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