Reinterpretation
Brief
The brief for this assignment was to find a piece of art and reinterpret it using new media technologies and taking into consideration the user’s experience.
Idea
My original idea for this project was to use The Beetles ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album cover and have accessible information about the people featured in the cover shown below.
Whilst searching for that image I came across another image that interested me even more, I decided to use this image instead as it would provide me with a greater challenge and more room for invention.
Discussing the Divine Comedy With Dante
I decided that an image containing so many famous people and places needs some form of key to display information about its content. My initial idea was to add links to each individual that opened in a new page. But then I thought about the content that could be attached to the individuals and I realised I could add text, video and audio in various forms to create interesting and interactive elements and also links could be attached to display other relevant information.
Research
When I came across this picture it was simply titled ‘A painting with famous people’. It took me quite a while to discover the names of the artists and the artworks true title. ‘Discussing The Divine Comedy with Dante’ was painted in 2006 by three little known Chinese painters Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi and Zhang An. All three artists included their own images at the top right corner alongside the inspiration for the piece of art Dante Alghieri.
Dante Alghieri’s poem, ‘The Divine Comedy’ which chronicles Dante's journey to God is made up of the Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). It is my belief that due to the positioning of the artists and Dante, overlooking the ensemble of people below that they are discussing were the individuals featured and the probability of their souls ending up in either Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.
There are 103 images of famous people in the artwork and a full list is available by clicking here.
‘Discussing the Divine Comedy’ has become a cult internet image.
These websites contain more information about ‘Discussing the Divine Comedy’.
http://i.gae.ro/painting/
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2324971.ece
The Project
My aim for this project is to improve the image by adding interactive elements that enhance the qualities it already contains.
My first thought when I saw this image was that due to the large amount of subject matter within the artwork there was a large potential for interactivity. I decided that the best way of displaying this was to use the programme ‘Adobe Flash’.
I decided that although this is an amazing piece of art, it kind of reminded me of a ‘Where’s Wally’ puzzle. It is quite hard to view the individuals without zooming into the image so I decide it needed a way of enlarging sections of the image, so I created a magnifying glass effect that would enlarge individuals and elements.
I added buttons that are only viewable as the magnifying glass rolls over them with the words “click here for more info” on some of the characters and places featured. When these buttons are clicked, text information displays in a box at the base of the screen and a short video about the individual or place appears along with links to websites.
Examples of this can be seen on the following characters and images:
Mike Tyson
Bruce Lee
Charlie Chaplin
Winston Churchill
Dante Alghieri
Michael Jordan
Kofi Annan
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mother Teresa
Pele
Osama Bin Laden
Abraham Lincoln
Shaquille O’Neil
Pyramids
Stonehenge
There is the potential to do this for every character, place, animal and inanimate object featured in this piece of art.
I added appropriate audible elements to some of the people, animals and objects in the painting, these are listed below:
Beethoven
Camel
Cow
Dog
Bull
Elvis Presley
Hawk
Typewriter
Record Player
Mozart
There is also the potential to do this for every character, animal and inanimate object featured in this piece of art.
To highlight the fact that the artists who painted this piece are in the image I used invisible buttons that are only viewable as the magnifying glass rolls over them, but instead of the click here for more info buttons featured on other characters, I used an artist’s paint brush instead. In the case of Dante Alghieri I used another button in the same style that displays the title of the artwork to highlight the fact that he is the inspiration for the piece of art.
To add an element of fun I added a hidden character that appears when you roll over a character with same name, in this case Homer the Greek poet and Homer Simpson, as he appears on the image his iconic catchphrase “doh” sounds.
It would be possible to feature other hidden characters in various parts of the image.
Having shown some of the potential for the image I decided to stop before it got too confusing for the user. I have shown that every person, place and object could have had more than one interactive element and with more time I could have accomplished this but with so much scope there was a risk that I could have reached a point where adding too much content would have detracted, Irritated and confused the user.
My aims for this project were to improve the image by adding interactive elements to enhance the qualities it already contains and hopefully I have accomplished that.
Due to the file size of the finished piece I am unable to place it on this site but if anybody would like to see the finished piece please contact me
Project Review
I am very happy with my project in terms of content and interactivity, it provides the user with useful functions and informative content using textual, audible and visual elements. There are audible elements to enhance visual features and a hidden character to provide an entertaining element.
I found many versions of “Discussing the Divine Comedy by Dante” on the internet with added name lists and visual keys but none of them had the level of interactivity or imagination that is displayed in the version I have created.
I know there are a few technical problems with the piece I produced. In particular with the audio rollover elements, some sounds continue to play over all other sounds, this is a problem that I am currently still trying to solve.
Another potential idea that I had was to turn this image into a game. First providing the user with the names of the individuals in the painting, the user would then have to match up to the names to the corresponding image and by adding a timer and a point system it would become a game.