Exploring art at a stroke A unique app which allows you to peel back the layers of a masterpiece and uncover a previously hidden world has been developed by experts from Ā鶹“«Ć½ and Northumbria universities. The āRepentirā smart phone and iPad app has been designed to enhance the gallery experience, allowing visitors the opportunity to not just view the painting but also interact with it and explore the artistās creative process. Featuring the latest work by internationally-acclaimed artist Nathan Walsh ā āTransamericaā ā the app allows the user to rub away the layers of the painting to reveal the multiple hidden stages right back to the first pencil lines. Developed by Dr Jonathan Hook of Ā鶹“«Ć½ās Culture Lab and Dr Jo Briggs of Northumbria University, Repentir ā along with the finished painting Transamerica - is being unveiled today at the 2013 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing in Paris. After this the painting and app will be exhibited at the Bernarducci Meisel Gallery in New York. Ā鶹“«Ć½ lead Dr Hook, a researcher in human-computer interaction, explains: āThe app means that youāre not limited to just looking at the art - you can interact with it and feel your way through it. āRepentir works by picking out prominent features in the original painting, such as corners of buildings, and then looking for the same features in the image captured on the gallery visitorās iPhone. This is known as āscale invariant feature matchingā. āThe app then replaces the iPhone photograph with the multi-layered images taken during the different stages of the artistās creative process. āThis means the process works even if only a small area of the painting is photographed or if it is taken at an angle, allowing visitors to get up close to the painting and explore particular regions. āAnd because every visitor will capture the image from a slightly different angle, rub away the layers in a different way and focus in on different points, it means everyoneās appreciation of the piece will be totally unique.ā Repentir ā which is an artistic reference to the changes or corrections an artist makes to their work ā was developed using a digital camera which was installed in the York-based studio of the contemporary British realist painter Nathan Walsh. The camera captured a daily image of the canvas as his most recent work āTransamericaā developed over a four-month period. The team then created an app that uses computer vision algorithms to recognise the painting in photographs taken from various perspectives. People viewing the painting simply need to download the free app onto their smart phones or tablet then take a photograph of the original artwork or a print of it. Repentir is then able to precisely overlay the sequence of images captured by the artist. Each step of the drawing and painting process can then be explored layer by layer by scrolling through the full sequence of images captured, or alternatively ārubbing outā areas of each successive layer of the painting using a finger against the mobile screen to reveal the under-layers right back to the original pencil drawing and blank canvas. The new app has been created in response to the profound challenges that the easy copying and sharing of digital files pose to the creative industries. The researchers sought to explore alternative models for the dissemination of digital content to add value to art. Dr Jo Briggs, lead researcher at Northumbria University, explains: āWeāve been working with painter Nathan for over a year and in that time were struck by the sheer effort and time he invests in each painting. We wanted to expose and celebrate this in a new digital artefact.ā Project lead Professor Mark Blythe, a designer working in the field of human-computer interaction at Northumbria University, adds: āIn the digital age there is no āoriginalā or ālimited editionā anymore. The changes in the music industry have shown that you canāt limit digital files. Therefore we need new approaches to making digital originals. āNathanās art is in a hyper-real style and many people find it hard to believe that he starts each work from a free-hand drawing. The idea is this technology enhances the artwork as it allows gallery visitors to explore the skilful and complex creative processes that went into creating it. āPicasso once remarked that the problem with any painting is that eventually it is hung on a wall and nobody ever looks at it again. It may be that new forms of reproduction ā such as Repentir ā will open up new ways of looking.ā Nathan Walsh, who is famed for his photorealistic cityscapes, said he does not feel exposed by revealing his drawing process to the viewing public. On the contrary, he says, āRepentir shows how I construct every element of my paintings from scratch,ā he said. āIām quite happy to promote my original drawings as it demonstrates the fact that drawing is at the heart of what I do. āThe app allows people to get a feel for my journey through making this work. It gives an indication of my methodology and the honesty of my creative process.ā The research team hopes to incorporate more of Nathanās current and future artwork in Repentir and also plans to develop apps with other painters to expand the range of paintings that the app is able to deconstruct. Transamerica will be on display in Paris until May 2 before it will be exhibited in New York at the Bernarducci Meisel Gallery. For more details on the Repentir app, visit . For information on Nathan Walshās work, see . published on: 27 April 2013
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