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Computer Created A 'New Rembrandt' After Analyzing Paintings (bbc.com)

TechnoidNash quotes a report from Techie News: Rembrandt van Rijn was one of the most influential classical painters, and the world lost his amazing talent when he died nearly four centuries ago. And yet his newest masterpiece was unveiled only yesterday. How? By scanning and analyzing Rembrandt's works, a computer was able to create a new painting in near-perfect mimicry of Rembrandt's style. It has been named, appropriately, "The Next Rembrandt." The computer used machine-learning algorithms to create the portrait, which was then 3D-printed to give it the same texture as an oil painting. "The Next Rembrant," was a collaboration between Microsoft, ING, Delft University of Technology and two Dutch art museums -- Mauritshuis and Rembrandthuis.

115 comments

  1. What was that shit site? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Informative

    Gimme the pic, let me look at it for the 3.4 seconds I'm interested in it, and let me get the hell out of there. The site linked from TFA (www.nextrembrandt.com) felt like a throwback to the days when people actually built "sites" with Flash. Yeech!

    1. Re:What was that shit site? by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...felt like a throwback to the days when people actually built "sites" with Flash...

      It's not nearly as bad as that.
        * browser navigation keys work (doesn't get stuck in a separate mode)
        * Text can be selected and copied
        * No proprietary player brimming with exploits

      Agree, it doesn't cater to the ADHD set - you actually have to play the video, or at least skip through to the end like I did - to test your art connoisseur quotient, or scope the tech out for counterfeiting potential, or whatever your immediate goal is. You have to admit, it's a slick html5 demo, and not without taste.

      It also breaks the internet in various ways just like flash, for example, no deep links, you can only bookmark the top level site. The only way in is through the art show. I sure don't want the internet to end up like that, a video internet just isn't for me. But for announcing an art research project? OK, fine. At least it's not flash.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:What was that shit site? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's worse than that: It bitches about my browser being too old or hey, would I like a windows binary of chrome? (This is a linux binary of chrome, yech.)

      Anyway the painting reminds me of a story: $GUY's father in law has a Mondriaan on the wall, and as a prank he copies the painting himself. "Funny" says father in law, walking by the painting and unaware of the swap, "always thought it had a special something, but that's gone now."

      "Analyzing" and coming up with a "new" painting in the same style? Sure, good exercise for a human. Having "deep learning" do it? Bit of a tech wank. Especially so with grandiose claims attached. Yet it can't copy what makes great paintings great. Much like we can copy all we want but we won't get violins quite as good as Stradivarius' violins.

      And Delft University Of Technology? They went all business-like, converted their internal IT all to microsoft, did away with the department subdomains because "too hard" in exchange, "standardised" on three kinds of supported peecee, all microsoft, and a number of similar follies. Fun fact: The IT department didn't care about no longer being able (or allowed) to run non-microsoft. The physics department, however, turned out to have a bunch of Expensive Machines that run on Unix, and now they're "allowed" to take care of those themselves again, after the departmental IT departments were cut away.

      So now they're doing tech circle jerk "research" together with microsoft. Doesn't surprise me. At all.

    3. Re:What was that shit site? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a sponsored site. Be glad those bastard bankers at least once supported something worthy. It's sound experiment and looks good.

    4. Re:What was that shit site? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In a double blind test, Stadivari's violins were not rated as highly as the modern counterparts by professional violin players.

      So, yeah... *cough*Bullshit*cough*

  2. No, it didn't. by kheldan · · Score: 1
    Headline should read:

    Computer Created A "Rembrandt-Themed" Graphic After Analyzing Paintings

    Why? Because art is all about the artist attempting to elicit an emotional response from the person experiencing their work, and since no so-called 'AI' has actual emotions, it can't understand art, and therefore can't 'create' art.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:No, it didn't. by Calydor · · Score: 2

      But can the AI itself then be considered art, as it has been made to make people observing it in action feel awe and astonishment at what it is doing?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    2. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, no.

      Art is pretty wide open in terms of motive. Not to mention several works are nothing more than perfecting technique or destroying it altogether.

      This seems to be not much more than the "new" works by Bach done in the 90s. Yes, the mimicry is impressive, but in the end it is no more a new Rembrandt than the painted copy of The Falling Rocket I have.

    3. Re:No, it didn't. by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Funny

      I suppose code could be considered art. After all Windows has elicited great feelings of despair and anguish from those observing it.

    4. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are correct about how the headline should read, but for the wrong reason. The actual reason is because Rembrandt is dead.

    5. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But, so has the atom-bomb.

    6. Re:No, it didn't. by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      Because art is all about the artist attempting to elicit an emotional response from the person experiencing their work, and since no so-called 'AI' has actual emotions, it can't understand art, and therefore can't 'create' art.

      Even if I accept your narrow definition of art as "elicits and emotional response", I can't accept your non sequitur: having emotions is not a precondition for eliciting an emotional response. Just consider a flat tire to know that.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:No, it didn't. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      A.I. can elicit emotion easily.

      Many of the notes, chords, colors, and expressions which elicit emotion are now known and can be automated. A computer can generate original 'sad' or 'inspiring' music without human input. And that's without much in the way of A.I. either.

      speaking of flat tires, have you seen "Rubber"?

      I feel like we are closing in faster on A.I. over the last 5 years than the prior 20 years. The brain is a collection of many subsystems integrated in the claustrum.

      Brain injuries are especially instructive.

      Functional but non concious A.I. is happening as we speak. Just under half the jobs in society can be automated over the next two decades. That is much faster than society can adapt.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    8. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're just being anti-AI. What is art can be defined by anyone. If the insane scribbles and visual gibberish of modern art is considered art, so can this.

    9. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If a comfortable delusion give you hope, and isn't harming others, who am I to take that away from you?

      Keep on dreamin' man.

    10. Re:No, it didn't. by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Because art is all about the artist attempting to elicit an emotional response from the person experiencing their work, and since no so-called 'AI' has actual emotions, it can't understand art, and therefore can't 'create' art.

      Even if I accept your narrow definition of art as "elicits and emotional response", I can't accept your non sequitur: having emotions is not a precondition for eliciting an emotional response. Just consider a flat tire to know that.

      Indeed...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0mBxtWQR7M

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    11. Re:No, it didn't. by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      But can the AI itself then be considered art, as it has been made to make people observing it in action feel awe and astonishment at what it is doing?

      It really depends on your definition of "art." I can "observe" a waterfall or an erupting volcano "in action" and "feel awe and astonishment at what it is doing."

      Are they "art"?

      I know what you mean, though. For most people, "art" has something to do with a special kind of "aesthetic" appreciation. If you are able to appreciate the actions of a computer program in that aesthetic fashion, then sure, why not call it "art"? For some, there are certain things that are always "off-limits" for that kind of aesthetics -- this is where you get that big debate with Roger Ebert that happened several years ago where he said that video games could never be "art." That's because he was convinced (as many art fans are) that certain kinds of things are open to aesthetic appreciation, while others aren't. Almost everyone has some sort of boundary there -- Duchamp's famous presentation of a urinal as a piece of "art" shows how one can ultimately push that boundary to absurdity.

      Or perhaps not. Perhaps "aesthetic appreciation" is really just in the mind of the observer, and if the observer declares it to be "art," then why not? That's part of Duchamp's point.

      Of course, I doubt you wanted to dredge all of this philosophical baggage up with your comment. But it really gets at the heart of what "art" is, and how one knows whether to consider something to be "art."

    12. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is not AI. It is a procedural deterministic program with distinct set rules no more or less so than Conway's Game of Life.

    13. Re:No, it didn't. by omnichad · · Score: 1

      The jury is still not out yet on whether the human mind is a procedural deterministic program. A bit too early to say it's definitely not AI.

    14. Re:No, it didn't. by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      and since no so-called 'AI' has actual emotions

      Please explain what emotions are and why they can't be represented by AI.

    15. Re:No, it didn't. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      The brain has a lot of short cuts for speed (See a book called Brain Bugs.)

      There is plenty of evidence that the brain is it. There is no supernatural or extra dimensional component to the brain.

      I suspect that parts of the brain are procedural and deterministic but with shortcuts. Other parts are parallel and other parts are neural networks. There may be parts we dont' understand how to model yet too. But progress is faster now than in the past.

      Every year I see more AI goalstones met and then declared to not be real AI.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    16. Re:No, it didn't. by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      Art is about creating an emotional response in the viewer *regardless of the intent*. In fact many times art (literature in particular) evokes an emotional response entirely different from the intent or when there was no intent at all.

              No emotions in the artist are required.

    17. Re: No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Plenty of people create art without giving a fuck what others think of it.

    18. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why? Because art is all about the artist attempting to elicit an emotional response from the person experiencing their work, and since no so-called 'AI' has actual emotions, it can't understand art, and therefore can't 'create' art.

      I'm pretty confident that most so called artists doesn't have actual emotions either.

      Luckily this isn't a requirement for creating art. Your conclusion doesn't make sense. If it was close to truth at all we wouldn't be able to appreciate or get emotional about things created without emotional input. That would include things like a natural view or a car accident.
      Both of them can clearly create an emotional response.

      A lot of artists thinks that art is a way to view or to understand the world. That is in my opinion a very narcissistic view of art.
      In my experience both from enjoying music and looking at paintings the interesting thing is rather that it gives us a view into how the artists views the world.
      It would be silly to think that this view is any less subjective than any other persons view, but that doesn't make it less interesting.
      To some extent you are right. Art can convey emotions in a way language struggles with, but it is the emotions the artist felt that are shown, not the emotions they want us to feel.
      This is why I think art made by "tormented" artists are a lot more interesting than from those who are technically skilled. (Ideally they should be both.)
      If you can look at several works of art from the same artist together with information about what the artists life was like at the different times then it gives you a completely different experience about someones emotions than just a random painting would give you.
      Artists struggling with mental issues like schizophrenia or depression can also be an experience that gives you insights you wouldn't otherwise get.

      Art that is specifically made to make you feel a particular thing OTOH tend to be pretentious crap that doesn't work. If you don't have the same previous experiences as the artist you won't be able to relate and if you do then you will see through the bullshit and it won't move you.
      Unfortunately there is way too much of this kind of 'art'. It's not good, it's just patronizing when a hack thinks that he can manipulate your emotions without bringing anything real into it.

    19. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rembrandt is dead.

      Well, Slashdot tends to be a bit behind on the news. I guess this would fit right in with all the other slightly delayed news.

      I'm just waiting for the article about how transistors will revolutionize electronics. That is going to be an interesting read.

    20. Re:No, it didn't. by westlake · · Score: 0

      I suppose code could be considered art. After all Windows has elicited great feelings of despair and anguish from those observing it.

      The geek's jokes just write themselves, no need for computer simulation. It would be unkind to suggest that he has had twenty years to stake his claim to the desktop, with next to nothing to show for it, and if that isn't cause for despair, what is?

    21. Re:No, it didn't. by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      You're making the incorrect assumption that a computer needs to experience emotions in order to elicit them in others.

    22. Re:No, it didn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A detonating atom-bomb would be absolutely considered art by all definitions except those coming from bleeding-heart pussies who think art can't include death

    23. Re:No, it didn't. by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Are they "art"?

      "Whenever somebody puts quotation marks around the word art, I imagine a stuffy guy with a square jaw glaring at a Maplethorpe photograph. And through his twisted, disgusted sneer he says "they call this 'art'! Can you believe it! 'Art,' they call it!" And he stands there, being disgusted for hours on end, just staring at it..."

  3. Nope, sorry by s.petry · · Score: 1

    The brilliance of a painter like Rembrandt can not be reproduced digitally. The talent of a painter is only partially based on color and space utilization, but primarily based on brush strokes.

    Build me a robot that uses a mechanical brush with the same finesse, then we will talk.

    Digital mimicry is interesting, but it's not painting.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Nope, sorry by kheldan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, but technique is only part of being an artist. There are plenty of artists out there who can create incredible knock-offs of famous paintings, but that can't create an original work of their own that anyone has any interest in; you can be technically talented, but have no talent for creation.

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    2. Re:Nope, sorry by s.petry · · Score: 1

      You are not a painter if you don't paint, you are not a guitarist if you don't play a guitar, and you are not a boxer if you don't box.

      No issues with the digital world at all, but call things what they are and keep your feet on the ground and head out of the clouds. Rembrandt was a painter and artist. There were no online databases of paintings, and no store to order paints from. Classic painters mixed their own paint and colors, and mechanically crafted from scratch.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    3. Re:Nope, sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Rembrandt did not, he married into wealth and bought most of his supplies. He lived in the city and employed people to do the dirty parts of art for him.

      While you are correct in the sense that rembrandt was a classic painter, and the idea that classic painters had to make most of their own supplies, but once you got wealthy/renowned enough (and rembrandt was fucking REMBRANDT), you just had other people do that shit for you.

      Kinda like we do now.

      Credentials: Art BFA

    4. Re:Nope, sorry by fisted · · Score: 1

      and rembrandt was fucking REMBRANDT

      For fun or for the sole purpose of procreation?

    5. Re:Nope, sorry by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. This thing is part of some sort of campaign (non-organized, is my guess, but still targeted) to make people accept digital fakes of real things as the genuine article. As usual, the motivation is greed. In the same fashion we will eventually get digital "actors", "writers", "game designers", etc. and the quality will be sorely lacking in all of those. A large part of the customer-base will not notice that though.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:Nope, sorry by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Build me a robot that uses a mechanical brush with the same finesse, then we will talk.

      Umm... this one? I mean, sure I grant it's using a motor with much finer control than a brush, and extruding the ink in a controlled way, but both are being done to emulate the clumsier human motions of a hand with brush.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    7. Re: Nope, sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder if this painting wasnt labeled as being done by a machine, and instead simply suggested that it looks like a newfound rembrandt, how many of you would actually consider it good enough to be real?

      Hes my favorite artist, and im ginuinely impressed.

    8. Re:Nope, sorry by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      He was fucking himself. I'd guess it was for fun.

    9. Re:Nope, sorry by Solandri · · Score: 0

      Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [about Data's recent violin concert] Your playing is quite beautiful.

      Lt. Cmdr. Data: Strictly speaking, sir, it is not my playing. It is a precise imitation of the techniques of Jascha Heifetz and Trenka Bron-Ken.

      Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Is there nothing of Data in what I'm hearing? You see, you chose the violinist. Heifetz and Bron-Ken have radically different styles, different techniques, and yet... you combined them, successfully.

      Lt. Cmdr. Data: I suppose I have learned to be... creative, sir - when necessary.

      Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Mr. Data, I look forward to your next concert.

    10. Re:Nope, sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just mushy fiction, nothing more.

    11. Re:Nope, sorry by hairykrishna · · Score: 2

      It's not just digital. There is a physical, 3d printed, picture with a texture which is presumably mapped from Rembrandt brush strokes.

      --
      "Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
    12. Re:Nope, sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, in that episode it is very obvious that Data does not know how to actually play the violin, and that the sound was added later in post-production.

    13. Re:Nope, sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, in that episode it is very obvious that Data does not know how to actually play the violin, and that the sound was added later in post-production.

      I'm also pretty sure that the actor that plays Data isn't really a robot, and that the series wasn't filmed on a real spaceship.

    14. Re:Nope, sorry by kheldan · · Score: 1

      1. Data was a true, self-aware AI that you could have a decent, human-level conversation with, not some cheesy algorithm.
      2. As much as I liked NextGen, it was just a TV show, not real life, there was no such actual personage as Mister Data, we're not in the 24th century, there's no Federation of Planets; it was all fiction.
      3. I stand behind my original assertions.

      --
      Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    15. Re:Nope, sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      can't create an original work of their own that anyone has any interest in; you can be technically talented, but have no talent for creation

      A cynic like me might say that talent for "creation" is irrelevant here: creating an original work is easy, but getting others to have an interest in it requires a talent for self-promotion.

  4. I'd like to see something more complex by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    A more complex staging and ideally of something that could not have existed in his time.

    I don't know... a dutch programmer riding a t-rex. In Rembrandt's style.

    The point is not to make a Rembrandt forgery I would hope. The point should rather be to capture the style of the artist and give the computer or other artists the ability to generate works in that style.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:I'd like to see something more complex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dutch programmer riding a t-rex. In Rembrandt's style

      Eh, screw that. Do tentacle porn. In Hieronymous Bosch's style. Give the Japanese a run for their money.

  5. Wrong format by Iamthecheese · · Score: 1

    The only reason to put this information into a video format is to disguise how little information you're providing. Don't give me a vapid human interest story, tell me who made it, how it was made, the significant similarities and differences of the output, and the implications for future AI projects. I want to know system requirements, how much human input went into it, whether you can do it again, and how well it extends to other painters and other kinds of art. But you don't want to tell me those things. Which means you're embarrassed about them.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
    1. Re:Wrong format by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to the article and video, quite a lot of human input went into it.

      Choosing which features where significant, what to measure, how to pose the subject, what to paint, what to leave out of the painting...

      Virtually every feature seems to have been manually selected, and spoon-fed into the program.

      All this work to create only one painting?

      What that hides is what that program "knows." Produce two dozen paintings, and we'll have a better idea of what sort of notions it "learned" about Rembrandt, and painting in general.

    2. Re: Wrong format by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Instead of buying a print of a painting, these guys want to disrupt the market with fake ^H^H^H^H^H3d prints that look like the real thing for even more money.

  6. it is a Rembrandt only if computer is Rembrandt by sittingnut · · Score: 1

    until computer has the same individual personality ,memory, intelligence , and emotions( including troubling ones with all the psychological complexes that come with experiencing life ) as Rembrandt, the painting created by it is not a Rembrandt.

    one has to wonder why they chose painting to demonstrate this computer abilities (with added complexity of physical creation of painting which is mostly dependent on other technologies), when poetry would have been a better way to demonstrate the computer's machine-learning.
    why didn't they scan and analyze some famous poet (Shakespeare, Dante, Pope, Milton, Wordsworth, Eliot, Pushkin, Pound, Dickinson, etc etc ) and create new poems?

    is it because falseness of this claim can be more easily spotted by even ordinary people if it is a poem? while it takes more experience and training to spot the deficiencies in painting?

    1. Re:it is a Rembrandt only if computer is Rembrandt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      is it because falseness of this claim can be more easily spotted by even ordinary people if it is a poem?

      The falseness of what claim, exactly?

    2. Re:it is a Rembrandt only if computer is Rembrandt by sittingnut · · Score: 1

      claim that a new work can be created by computer with same quality and recognizable individuality, as a work by original creator

    3. Re:it is a Rembrandt only if computer is Rembrandt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a bullshit claim that you made up as a strawman, then. Thought so.

    4. Re:it is a Rembrandt only if computer is Rembrandt by sittingnut · · Score: 1

      no wonder you post as AC, since you obviously can't comprehend what you read.

  7. rethink please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if you insist a machine cannot create art, then in this case the hand holding the paintbrush is the person(s) who pulled the 'go' switch, and/or the software author(s)

    also, humans with complete apathy and/or completely flat affect (the two things laymen could consider "no emotions", normally due to brain damage) can understand and create art

    something less clear: does that dog that likes colour combinations and does actually, weirdly, compose paintings[1] - does it count as art? what if it were a chimp?

    [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  8. Typical, average, math by holophrastic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny. This research spent a great deal of effort to identify the artist's "typical" approaches to individual and compound features; it then averages them to produce a work that feels like a Rembrandt.

    But the only reason that it feels like a Rembrandt at all is because it is the centroid of all of his stylistic approaches -- a perfect average.

    As in most cases, an "average" of many details is precisely not what an artist does. An artist's real work is in the details that defy their own averages and typical approaches. Listen to any artist analysis, and you'll hear words like "unlike in his other works...", "for the first time at that point..", "never before...", "...and yet in this painting...".

    This work is very impressive, a perfect way to fool viewers and a perfect way to pay respect to Rembrandt's approach. That said, however, it is precisely the definition of not a Rembrandt. It is not the work of an artists. It is the work of a business -- which has always been the ability to reproduce copies of something (product or service) in a replicatable and bulk manner.

    1. Re:Typical, average, math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've extended this work by including all famous painters with their paintings. After sophisticated processing of characteristics of images, the computer created ultimate, final artistic output. It is absolute piece of art, a pure definition of beauty. All painters which have seen that were completely demoralized (telling they will never take a brush to their hand again), some of them committed a suicide.. Before you click on the link, be sure you do not have any heart condition.
      Here it is

    2. Re:Typical, average, math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That said, however, it is precisely the definition of not a Rembrandt. It is not the work of an artists. It is the work of a business -- which has always been the ability to reproduce copies of something (product or service) in a replicatable and bulk manner.

      Actually it is a perfect Rembrandt. He was a businessman: most of his work was pained by his students - he was just signing them. If he would have this program connected to a robot which would "do the painting" (he probably would not get away with a laser printer), he would save quite some money to keep his students silent, increasing ??? Profit!

    3. Re:Typical, average, math by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      It's funny. This research spent a great deal of effort to identify the artist's "typical" approaches to individual and compound features; it then averages them to produce a work that feels like a Rembrandt.

      But the only reason that it feels like a Rembrandt at all is because it is the centroid of all of his stylistic approaches -- a perfect average.

      That's one way of looking at it. But actually the methodology as described in TFA was more to combine thousands of fragments of other paintings to create a composite.

      I wonder if the result is therefore a little like the musical "compositions" created by the algorithms of David Cope. Cope has been doing this procedure since the 1980s where he has a program that takes dozens or hundreds of musical works by a particular composer in a particular genre as "input," and then claims to "compose" new works in that style.

      To those who don't really know much about a Chopin Mazurka, for example, the result seems pretty amazing. But to those who actually know all the Chopin Mazurkas (there aren't that many of them), the listening experience is a bit surreal, since the "new pieces" sound more like odd mashups of bits of the old ones, often joined haphazardly together in ways that don't quite make sense.

      I wonder if an art historian might have a similar take on this "new Rembrandt" when examining it closely. From afar, it certainly seems to have the general style of the original artist, but perhaps the details are an odd mashup whose "joints" don't quite blend well.

      On the other hand, if they managed to make those "seams" invisible so the whole thing looks coherent, that'd be a much greater achievement. Also, it's unclear how much tweaking was involved in this project -- Cope was known to listen to hundreds of the "AI composed pieces" and himself choose the best of the lot to exhibit... presumably the few that actually made the most sense.

    4. Re:Typical, average, math by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I would be interested to see if it could trick an art expert.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Typical, average, math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Citation? That may be true of Andy Warhol and his factory, but I'm unaware that Rembrandt did nothing but take credit for the work of his students.

    6. Re:Typical, average, math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This work is very impressive, a perfect way to fool viewers and a perfect way to pay respect to Rembrandt's approach. That said, however, it is precisely the definition of not a Rembrandt. It is not the work of an artists. It is the work of a business -- which has always been the ability to reproduce copies of something (product or service) in a replicatable and bulk manner.

      You nailed it. They have no way to make a different "Next Rembrandt", which of course, Rembrandt obviously did.

      I'd like to give a personal point of view as well. I grew up with and lived with classical art for half a century now. Started looking at art books and originals at age 3. At this point, I can determine fakes at a glance. Not for a living, but I'm pretty damn accurate, and this new one does not pass the sniff test.

      Rembrandt, or any artist for that matter, has a way of matching the relationship between the subject matter and the higher order structures that make it up, and the space and the light, that is unique to their mind. Live long enough with it and you get to recognize the mind. Its strengths and its weaknesses. Now I can't formalize it but fakes pop out like sore thumbs.

      So, here is the first, biggest, simplest thing that jumps out at me. The forward shoulder is wrong in how it relates to the overall gesture of the sitter, and the receding shoulder is not placed properly at all in relation to the body. Look a real Rembrandt. He may vary the relationships of the shoulders but he's very consistent in making sure that the relationships are well defined and have specific roles in the composition. The computer average misses completely.

      Having known himself well, Rembrandt would not have been deceived by this image. Most likely, just confused.

    7. Re:Typical, average, math by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Also, it's unclear how much tweaking was involved in this project

      This is why I'm not impressed. Once they can tell the machine what to paint without tweaking, I'll raise an eyebrow. Until then, they've just created a different brush and canvas for humans to work with.
      One very inefficient one too, in that it takes dozens of humans several years.

  9. does it look like a data dump set to color? by swschrad · · Score: 1

    because that's what it is. "here's a line with a little curl, so it has to have a thick edge here" is all they were doing.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  10. Yeah... no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is like hitting pause half way through a face morph on the "Black or White" video from the early '90s.

    Over the past 12 months, one of the AI-hipster themes has been combining lots of faces to make a new face, and marvelling over how REAL the face looks. Well, yeah, an average of many numbers of palatable size is also a number of palatable size. Woohoo!

  11. The project is a work of art, not the output. by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 2

    What they have done is Art, but what they have produced is just a beautiful artefact. It is the act of pushing the envelope in visual communications that is the artistic act, the Next Rembrandt is just the evidence, in the same way a video recording is the evidence, a document, that records a performance art event.

    1. Re:The project is a work of art, not the output. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1

  12. Looks like... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a conglomeration of everything into one hideous pile of crap.

  13. At best, an average Rembrandt. Literally. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's interesting the end quote was:

    "The next Rembrandt makes us think about where innovation can take us."

    Yet the description from the video (albeit a bit glib) seems to focus on how technology can be used to create something that's a statistical average of an artist's style. The subject is an average subject of Rembrandt - specifically "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".

    It seems that, with all these constraints, they were striving to create something that was - while presented using a very convincing simulation of Rembrandt's style - no more than what could literally be called an average portrait.

    Average for Rembrandt, anyway.

    So by definition, not really a "masterpiece", is it? All that work to create something that's just "average."

    And what's with the breathlessly hyperbolic question at the beginning of the video - "Can the great master be brought back to life to create a new painting?"

    Did I miss the part where data mining can somehow bring someone "back to life?" Do I magically *become* Bach if I decide to write a fugue in his style?

  14. All that effort for a clever copy.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they did a picture of me, or someone he may have painted if he was alive today with all the technique and insight of the master then that would be impressive
    Otherwise it just a clever merge copy of his previous works

  15. I want to see it by jdavidb · · Score: 1

    I clicked on it and something animated is happening on my screen, but it definitely isn't a painting. What gives? Microsoft and all these brilliant computer experts can duplicate Rembrandt, but they can't distribute a digital image in a standard, easy to download format?

    1. Re:I want to see it by jdavidb · · Score: 1

      Ah, there we go, I googled for it and saw a thumbnail immediately. Obviously most people are not going to waste time viewing this on the official site when they can see it much quicker elsewhere.

  16. I don't get it by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    If an AI meshes together some bits and pieces of a painter it's news and maybe even art, but if a musician meshes together some bits and pieces of another musician it's a lawsuit?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realise that Rembrant's work is about 400 years out of copyright, don't you?

      If someone mashed together some Bach, there wouldn't be any lawsuits.

    2. Re:I don't get it by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Hey, don't attack me, I didn't claim copyright made any sense!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  17. a new Gimp filter? by mspring · · Score: 1

    Filters->Artistic->Rembrandt ???

  18. Were are all the Rembrandts? by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Something I often wonder is why we don't hear about 'new' geniuses in art. It's always the same guys from the 1700 and 1800s (once in a while an author from the 1900s sneaks in). Maybe they're all doing hard science now that it's a thing.

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    1. Re: Were are all the Rembrandts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bob Ross is famous currently.

    2. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Something I often wonder is why we don't hear about 'new' geniuses in art. It's always the same guys from the 1700 and 1800s (once in a while an author from the 1900s sneaks in).

      Uh, well, you might want to have a look here, where there are links to probably a couple hundred painters of the 20th century who are regarded as significant. There are many people in the art world who consider a lot of them to be "geniuses."

      Now, your objection might be: "Hey, most of that stuff looks like crap compared to Rembrandt. Where's the good stuff like what he did?" Certainly many people feel that way about various artistic movements of the past century or so.

      And for that, you'd have to blame German Romanticism of the 19th century, and "the cult of the genius." It's interesting that you use that word "genius," but artists weren't always seen that way -- Rembrandt wouldn't have been referred to that way in his lifetime. Artists used to be viewed a craftsmen, with particular skills -- some more talented than others. Centuries ago, being a painter meant learning the latest skills -- paint and materials weren't as good as they are today, so you needed to exploit the technology they had. Knowledge of perspective or the ability to manipulate and represent light and shadow took time for artists to figure out -- and so there was a gradual evolution toward the ability to create more realistic representations. The best painters were the ones who had incorporated this new knowledge to hone their craft.

      That all started to change with the "cult of the genius" and the "Aesthetik" movement that began in late 18th-century Germany and spread during the 19th century. The emphasis went away from craftsmen participating in guilds or groups of people with knowledge, and more emphasis was put on the individual creator ("genius") who was supposed to demonstrate individual expression.

      All of this is to say that there are hundreds of artists that could easily paint a Rembrandt-style painting today, probably as good as this computer did if not better. And there are probably thousands with the talent to learn how to do it easily, but they have no desire to.

      Why? Because that would just be "derivative." It has already been done. The mastery of skill and technique is considered only what one does in school -- to become an "artist" today requires innovation. Painting a realistic expressive scene with interesting chiaroscuro like Rembrandt is a great "exercise," but the "geniuses" of the 20th and 21st century wouldn't be caught dead doing that as their own output -- unless they were doing it ironically or something.

      TL;DR -- Rembrandt wasn't a "genius," since that whole concept of artist as "genius" hadn't yet been invented in his lifetime. And there are plenty of modern folks people call "artistic geniuses" -- but usually because of their unique innovations or individual ideas of expression, which are often quite different from the goals of someone like Rembrandt.

    3. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well, for me this guy is a genius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEEixxglscs (sorry, no subtitles, but at least scan through the film)
      Unfortunately, his mind worked at 110% only as a criminal; his "own" works don't seem so good.

    4. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      They are there, you're just not moving in the right circles to hear about them. And typically we only hear about these geniuses after they're dead, when they have a body of work behind them that somehow qualifies them. The art world is full of art, there were more cubists than just Picasso or surrealists like Magritte but somehow they became the most famous ones, both of them I think through controversy.

      We hear about a handful of people even in history because they're famous for some stolen, missing or opulent works or because they started a movement or they were somehow important in their time because they worked for the popes, kings and rich people in their times and they were the owners of these huge galleries that had dozens of pupils employed that did the actual work. If you ever took art history, you hear about a BUNCH more, such as students of these 'masters' that eventually start their own gallery and sign their own work.

      --
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    5. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Some time well before 2000 the techniques of photo-realism and trompe l'oeil were perfected, so one of the primary ways to judge advances in paintings became obsolete. 20th-century artists with recognizable names - Andy Warhol, Frank Frazetta, Peter Max, M. C. Escher among many others - are known by distinctive styles and visions. Styles are not as widely accepted as "great" compared to technical excellence, so a smaller portion of experts will recognize a given modern artist as a genius.

      --
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    6. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      In the 1800s (and before) there were thousands and thousands and thousands of artists all around, and people hired them to do portraits, fill their houses with custom paintings, paint churches, paint signs, paint murals for the inside of conference halls, etc. There was a lot of work for them. Out of those thousands and thousands of artists, we only remember a few today.

      Now if you want to become an artist, there is not a lot of work for you. Portraits are rarely done, signs are created by computers, painting saints inside churches isn't really done anymore. The number of artists who can really work in oils has dropped dramatically. The chances of someone developing skill to reach Rembrandt or Picasso is unlikely. Also, with the decline of painting came a decline in painting schools (Bob Ross notwithstanding).

      That said, if you want to see great art in the future, I would look to the east. Taiwan, for example, has a thriving art scene....

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Some time well before 2000 the techniques of photo-realism and trompe l'oeil were perfected,

      That's the excuse often given, but there were few artists who could match photo-realism......abstraction and 'style' were a way for artists to be successful without reaching quality technique.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by dfenstrate · · Score: 1

      We live in a big world with so many skilled people that it's much harder to stand out.

      https://www.artrenewal.org/

      --
      Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
    9. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, with the decline of painting came a decline in painting schools (Bob Ross notwithstanding).

      Thanks for the inspiration, now I must write a program that can paint happy trees!

    10. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea in CSGO I get called an autistic genius all the time!

      CAPTCHA: reload

    11. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      That's the excuse often given, but there were few artists who could match photo-realism......abstraction and 'style' were a way for artists to be successful without reaching quality technique.

      That's overly harsh. It's certainly true of some artists, but as I explained in my post above in the thread, there's an expectation that was created sometime around the 19th century for continuous "progress" and innovation in art.

      Why bother spending years learning classic technique only to be branded as "uninteresting" and "derivative"? Sure, if your goal is to paint portraits or to sell somewhat realistic landscapes at a county fair, that's a useful skill.

      But if you wanted to be accepted as an "artist" by the elite judges who control the artworld, those classical techniques are often less relevant.

      I have nothing against classical techniques, and I think they are worthwhile anyway -- but the people who aren't using or learning them aren't just making "excuses." Frequently they are trying to be appreciated by people who want something else, and for them such skills may be a waste of time.

    12. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      But if you wanted to be accepted as an "artist" by the elite judges who control the artworld, those classical techniques are often less relevant. I have nothing against classical techniques, and I think they are worthwhile anyway

      But I do have something against the elite judges who control the artworld....they are garbage and their judgement sucks. Better to be a no-name at the county fair with real skill than to have to bow to those losers.

      Realism gives you more options, more possibilities. Monet couldn't have done his incredible garden paintings if he hadn't mastered realism first, and Picasso knew exactly what to leave out because he could paint exactly to begin with. Realism is easier than abstraction if you want to do it right.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    13. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by mighty7sd · · Score: 1

      Surely you've heard of Banksy? He/she/they is regularly called a genius while still alive today.

    14. Re:Were are all the Rembrandts? by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 1

      Something I often wonder is why we don't hear about 'new' geniuses in art. It's always the same guys from the 1700 and 1800s (once in a while an author from the 1900s sneaks in).

      Uh, well, you might want to have a look here, where there are links to probably a couple hundred painters of the 20th century who are regarded as significant. There are many people in the art world who consider a lot of them to be "geniuses."

      Imagine if you will that everybody you know only listens to classical music and they only listen to works written before 1900. You have never even heard of The Beatles, for example. Everybody you know probably would tell you that all "modern" music sucks and you would be pretty much baffled to identify works by people like Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Nirvana, etc. That's kind of how art is. Starting in the latter part of the 1800s there was the impressionism movement and some other movements that began to move painting away from the classic realistic style the first poster is probably familiar with (ie. Rembrandt). These movements continued in the 1900s and on resulting in works that are very divisive. For example, I get what Picasso was doing, but he's not my favorite artist and I think his early career, more realistic paintings were crap. I think Salvador Dali was a genius and he could even paint in the classical style when he wanted to and he was outstanding at it and pretty much everything he ever did. I also like Fernand Leger's work, but not so much Piet Mondrian (Dali had a very funny and insulting comment about his work once) and Jackson Pollock. More recent paintings have gotten ever further away from the classical style to the point that I honestly think that a few painters are just scam artists and they're not really even trying to produce anything that's actually art, but merely deliberately putting crap on canvas to see if suckers will buy it.

      rsilvergun - If you have a chance to go a good art gallery in a major US metropolitan city, you might find some modern things you actually like. Or perhaps you are just a fan of the older styles. I never thought much of most of the movements in the 1900s until I actually had a chance to see some of the paintings from them in art museums and I discovered that there actually are some artists I do really like who don't paint in a realistic style at all.

  19. Where have I seen this before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  20. So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It scanned, and randomized it a bit, but still a copy.

  21. artist beware by swell · · Score: 1

    By artist, of course, I mean anyone in a creative field- painter, writer, musician, architect...

    This is another quantum (incremental) step toward computer generated art. Music has been done, writing, some graphic art. As in this example a study of a technique, a style, a mood is enough for clever software to imitate originals. For instance *your* style of writing, as revealed in term papers or creative writing, can be identified accurately and that ransom note will expose you to the authorities.

    The hope for human artists is that creativity can't yet be imitated. Pulp novelists, artistic 'Kinkades' and 'Worhols', musical bimbos and architectural clones - be gone - software can do it better. Nobody can imitate the style of Itzhak Perlman's violin better than Commander Data, but he can not create new music that goes beyond what already exists. (The fool can't even do grammatical contractions!)

    My grandmother, and many friends studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and/or photography. I doubt any of them intended to advance the art. They just wanted to create an acceptable image that they could be proud of. Something to hang on the wall and show their friends. I hope that they continue to do so, despite the coming commonality of such simple images. It is remotely possible that among them is one who will do something radical, something new. Something that no computer can do. That's art.

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
    1. Re:artist beware by coldsalmon · · Score: 1

      Exactly: these articles always make silly claims about making artists obsolete because now computers are "just as good" as the artists. But the touchstone of art is innovation. Algorithms have been able to copy established artists for decades, and students have been able to do it for thousands of years. Listening to Bach and reproducing Bach is clever, but I'll be really impressed when a computer can produce Bach after it listens to Palestrina. That would require computers that can understand human taste, history, and context. It's not so far-fetched, but it's still a long way off.

  22. Assistant will be out of job not the big artists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The value of a art piece does not lies in the virtosity of the maker but in the Name of the artist signature and the context in which it was produced. Contemporary art goes well beyond the objet itself since Duchamp in the beginning of the 1900. These news make sensationalist headlines, but I dont think that the likes of Jeff Koons who uses Legion of assistants and dont even touch his pieces really care. They are more akin to entrepeneurs and managers of their brand.

  23. W8. Let's bring gender and race into this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What was the racial and ethnic identities of these AI's. I want to know (and I suspect they are) if these AI's are coming from a primarily Eurocentric white male background. If they are I demand that these AI's be destroyed so that we can cancel out all the AI Racism and hatred before it gets a chance to take hold.

    If you do not agree with me you are a racist. Hell even if you do agree with me and you chose to be white you are still a racist. Racism is inherent in someone’s being. Just because you do not hate someone of a different race does not mean your not a racist (if you are white). Racism transcends sentient boundaries. Just because a computer can not pass the turning test does not mean it isn't a racist.

    End Racism now. Kill Whitely

  24. FTFY by DavidMZ · · Score: 0
    The top living artists (2015).

    If you are not in art you may not have heard of them, but what if we look at the 20th century?

    1. Re:FTFY by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Your "top list" has Yoko Ono on it.
      I like Yoko, but if she's a top artist, then we've fallen far from the days of Rembrandt.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  25. Copyright? by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    The next big question is: who owns the copyright of a computer-generated painting?

    1. Re:Copyright? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The computer is a tool, so the copyright goes to the person using the tool to produce the work.

  26. I get that if I'm in the scene by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    I'll know who the big guys are. But everybody knows who Rembrandt is. Same with Van Goh and Michelangelo. I don't think I could name one painter from the last century...

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    1. Re:I get that if I'm in the scene by lgw · · Score: 1

      You've likely heard of Monet and Picasso. Plus the ones we make fun of: Rothko and Pollock (and you've probably seen Mondrian, whose work is too bland to remember), who suckered the world into thinking meaningless blobs of paint were valuable art. Best con artists ever.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    2. Re:I get that if I'm in the scene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mondrian's and Pollock's works appear to be highly fractal. Maybe that's why the art crowd likes them so much. Me? I've only read of Pollock in an article about fractals.

      Rothko? Well, those are million dollar blobs of paint...

    3. Re:I get that if I'm in the scene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mondrian had a good sense of colors and proportions, at least - his abstract works manage to have a bit of character and flair. Today I imagine he'd do interesting minimalistic wordpress themes...

    4. Re:I get that if I'm in the scene by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Shame on you. In just 1 minute I can name Norman Rockwell, Gil Elvgren, Pablo Picasso, and Andrew Loomis. Then there are artists like M. C. Escher, that were not 'painters' in the strict meaning of the word, but still deserve a mention.

    5. Re:I get that if I'm in the scene by Gryle · · Score: 1

      "We encouraged painters to become more and more interested in the weave of the canvas, the weight of the brush-strokes, the plasticity of the paint; less and less interested in what the painting was about. The ideal picture was not a window on reality, but a sculpture a quarter of an inch thick; and for the most part, I am happy to report, the new art was as shallow as its medium. Painters stopped talking to their audience through imagery; now they only talked to one another about texture and impasto. We killed that art in a generation, and despite valiant efforts to revive it, it has remained safely in the grave. You can tell this is so, because whenever a painter dares to produce a vivid representation of a real or imagined scene, all the critics hiss and sneer and call him an illustrator: the worst insult in their vocabulary." - Tom Simon, Death By Bebop [bondwine.com]

      --
      Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
  27. NOT elicit an emotional response from the person by denzacar · · Score: 1

    To relay artist's PERSONAL experience to another person.

    That's why the goal is to UNDERSTAND art - not to love it or hate it, as it would be if the goal of art was an emotional response.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  28. I lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I looked up to see what tentacle porn was.

    I took a shower.

  29. Name-dropping by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 2

    This is a classic case of name dropping to make the software seem more amazing than it actually is.

    Lots of students in art classes can copy the work of a famous painter, and even imitate the style. Some can even do so convincingly. But that doesn't make the student a "new Rembrandt," in fact, most such students will never be recognized as brilliant. There is much more to being a master artist than just imitating the style of a great painter.

    1. Re:Name-dropping by chthon · · Score: 1
  30. Re:W8. Let's bring gender and race into this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are not the clever subversive you're so desperately trying to appear to be.

  31. The final result is a painting that looks similar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >The final result is a painting that looks similar to an original Rembrandt.
    really? computer generated? wow

  32. Not as impressive as it first seems by JohnStock · · Score: 1

    From the short description I was expecting computer AI to completely construct the images, whereas in actuality a lot of the steps were manually processed. Even isolating eyes and other features and finding similar images was completed by a human.