www.fastcompany.com: As anyone who’s already taken the pilgrimage to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa already knows, you can’t really see the Mona Lisa. Oh, it’s on display! But the diminutive painting is tucked behind annoyingly reflective bulletproof glass, itself surrounded by an omnipresent crowd that prevents you from getting close enough to really see it.
8 comments:
The author has a point...Looking at the photos provided in the article of what the VR program looks like, it did not impress me at all. As the article said, the program seems rather gimmick and is definitely not a solution to the poor experience of viewing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. When I visited the Louvre with my family, I was lucky enough to see the Mona Lisa pretty close up, as close as you could get there. But my siblings and I literally had to fight our way through the massive crowd surrounding this small painting that is behind a glass case and a security railing with additional security guards around it. All that I’m saying is, what the author said about the poor viewing experience is true but having this VR program is not the solution. It’s cool that it includes all the X-rays but overall it seems like the program does not enrich our understanding of the painting. It’s just making Mona Lisa 3D but we’re not learning anything from it. I feel like the program lacks real intent? I agree with the author’s sentiments and I hope to see big museums such as the Louvre find an innovative way to show art in a meaningful way.
I agree with the author of this article for sure. Though I've never been to the Lourve, I can imagine this wouldn't impress me much. Anyone who cares so much to see the Mona Lisa to wait in line and fight a huge crowd won't be impressed by this and everyone else doesn't care enough to look. Anyone who will want to see this VR experience could just look at a picture online and probably see more detail than we would in real life. It's pretty gimmick-y that they included the bottom half of the woman sitting for the portrait. This implicates that a real woman sat for the painting of the Mona Lisa, which we as a society already understand is not necessarily true. Da Vinci very likely based the painting on a man he knew, and historians are almost certain that no woman sat for the painting of the Mona Lisa. So, this is not only pretty dumb, but it's also pretty historically inaccurate, which is pretty incorrect for a museum. Now, I feel bad for making fun of this, because I understand the idea. It's a great idea to make art more interactive. I want everyone to have access to art and see it up close and personal, but truly this is not a great idea. I hope museums can find more ways to get viewers involved and allow people to see it up close.
While I agree that the most famous painting does not need a 3D VR aspect, I appreciate why the Louvre is adding one. Not only is it amazing publicity, but to use the VR will probably create a profit. Since VR is the new big thing, I’m not surprised that museums are experimenting with it. I would equate this addition to when museums started to add audio guides. I’m sure many people said there was no need and that you could get everything necessary from books, panflits, or looking at the piece. However, people love them because they present information in a new way. The VR headset does the same. Also, if this brings more people to the Louvre, they will most likely see other paintings besides the Mona Lisa; this technology is just getting them in the door. While I think this article makes good points, I do see the benefits of this VR technology.
I agree with this author that things like this are best left not done. At first, I thought it meant the VR was for people who were not actually at the museum so they could get a more personal experience with the painting from anywhere in the world, but the fact that it is a part of the museum now is kind of baffling to me. Even if you cannot get up super close to it, if you are there, go see the painting! I do not see how VR could help to enhance this experience at all. The 3d models in that video looked so incredibly fabricated it is not even funny. They made mona lisa look like a poorly rendered NPC from a 2005 video game about da vinci. There is a time and place for new tech like VR in the museum world, but this is not it. Just because we have this new fancy technology does not mean we need to pull it out and implement it any chance we get.
Personally, I think it is really cool when several art forms come together to support one another, especially when that crosses several decades. However, I completely understand where the author of this article is coming from. Yes, this new VR depiction of the Mona Lisa is cool, it is hard to know if it is what the artist would have wanted. In this article, the point is brought up that Leonardo da Vinci was not only a painter but a sculpture and if he had wanted this piece to be 3D in space, he could have done so with the tools available to him. Also, I think that the VR model strips away the beauty of the painting itself, because it draws the audience into the VR elements, not the actual work. Overall, I think that this was an interesting way in which to connect visitors of the museum to the piece, but it was a little bit too overdone.
I suppose there is some research value to this 3D virtual reality Mona Lisa endeavor, but I don't particularly enjoy looking at it. I think the scans should stay scans, for research or archive, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see a 3D VR version of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre if I were going to the Louvre. The virtual projection also doesn't quite look like the Mona Lisa. Her face is lumpier, uglier. Da Vinci was a sculptor as much as he was a painter; if he had wanted the Mona Lisa in anything but the form it took, we probably would have known. That being said, I appreciate the effort taken to combine these scans into such a detailed vision of the painting, and I hope Emissive will continue to do this painstaking work to better the art world.
I personally do not know which side I am on for this argument about the “Mona Lisa”. I agree with the author that a piece of art should be appreciated and viewed in its 2D form. However, the author said it themselves, it’s difficult for people to efficiently view the piece due to limitations and crowds. I remember this clearly from the time I went to the Louvre. I was so excited to see the piece, yet I could only get a small glimpse of it. There was no space or time to stand around and analyze the piece. The VR may not be authentic, but it can give the audience a chance to search for more details to appreciate. Not only that, but it can be a fun experience for younger members to view the piece in a fun way. The painting’s fame seems to be its curse, but I do think the VR is not a complete disservice to the piece that the author makes it out to be.
This article seems to be fairly opinionated about this new immersive Mona Lisa installation. I can understand why they think this installation is a bit pointless and not necessarily fit for the most famous museum in the world, but I still think that this is a very interesting concept for a piece. I have personally seen the Mona Lisa on display and the Louvre, and I do admit – it is a bit underwhelming. First of all, the painting is a lot smaller in person than it may seem from looking at pictures of it. The article is also right about a couple things – the big, bulletproof glass case is an annoyance and the sheer volume of people surrounding the painting make it seem even smaller and more insignificant, despite the fact that it is one of the most world-renowned paintings made by one of the most famous artists. I believe the immersive VR experience is a really interesting concept to take an even deeper look into the painting itself. The article says you can always just look up images of the Mona Lisa online, and obviously that isn’t wrong, but the VR experience provides more than just a look at the painting itself. The VR experience also shows much more detail about the piece thanks to its use and implementation of the scans that the Louvre has done of the Mona Lisa in the past. Contrary to the opinion expressed in the article, I would actually love to experience this firsthand.
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