Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh gets interactive

Just how has touchscreen technology affected you today – for the better (or worse)? Surely all our smartphones these days come with a multi-touch capable display, and we also have tablets to keep us occupied during those more mundane moments in life. How about introducing touch interactivity with a valuable piece of art? This is what we are looking at with Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” which has undergone a digital transformation to be come interactive by Petros Vrellis, a Greek digital artist and electrical engineer using openFrameworks.

Vincent’s Starry Night will see its swirling patterns of color being set into motion, where touching it will alter the image, while the night sky is animated enough for you to play the role of a deity by sending the wind’s flow into a different direction. Not only that, this kind of art is also accompanied by a MIDI interface, delivering a soft ambient tone which is accompanied by fluid movements. Everything will “reset” itself after you leave it untouched after a while.

Starry Night (interactive animation) from Petros Vrellis on Vimeo.