Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by BeauHD on from the computer-art dept.

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.

2 of 115 comments (clear)

  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 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.