Tim’s Vermeer (2013)
Jun. 24th, 2018 06:14 pmTim's Vermeer is a movie which every SCAdian I know should see, even though it has, ostensibly, nothing to do with the SCA. But it *does* have to do with that great SCAdian pastime, Experimental Archeology, the practice of trying to understand what people did in the past by trying to do what they did, and seeing what happened.
The film is directed by Teller, and produced and narrated by Penn Jillette, but it is not at all focusing on either of them. Rather, it focuses on a wacky inventor friend of theirs named Tim Jenison. Tim invented a lot of important computer/video technology, so now has money and leisure time available to spend on more abstruse projects. Such as figuring out how to paint something as good as Johannes Vermeer, using 17th century optical technology, despite not having any training as a painter (or any of the dozen other professions he needs in order to reproduce the 17th-century room he then wants to paint).
Spoiler alert: he succeeds. Tim makes a startlingly convincing case that Vermeer essentially invented a form of photography using paint and optics. Which is not to take away any of Vermeer’s credit in artistic composition or craftsmanship. One of the points that the film makes is that our modern antipathy between Art and Technology is very much a modern thing, and not a divide that existed much in the past.
Along the way there are many interesting discoveries, and discussions about the nature of Art. Highly Recommended.
The film is directed by Teller, and produced and narrated by Penn Jillette, but it is not at all focusing on either of them. Rather, it focuses on a wacky inventor friend of theirs named Tim Jenison. Tim invented a lot of important computer/video technology, so now has money and leisure time available to spend on more abstruse projects. Such as figuring out how to paint something as good as Johannes Vermeer, using 17th century optical technology, despite not having any training as a painter (or any of the dozen other professions he needs in order to reproduce the 17th-century room he then wants to paint).
Spoiler alert: he succeeds. Tim makes a startlingly convincing case that Vermeer essentially invented a form of photography using paint and optics. Which is not to take away any of Vermeer’s credit in artistic composition or craftsmanship. One of the points that the film makes is that our modern antipathy between Art and Technology is very much a modern thing, and not a divide that existed much in the past.
Along the way there are many interesting discoveries, and discussions about the nature of Art. Highly Recommended.