A billion little pixels

Joakim Züger
SMK Open
Published in
2 min readApr 6, 2018

The characters in Carl Bloch’s ‘From a Roman Osteria’ may not look pleased to be interrupted in the middle of supper, but don’t let that fool you. Recently, SMK had the opportunity of having this and a number of other works digitized for later use in our very own version of the app Second Canvas by Madpixel.

Carl Bloch’s ‘From a Roman Osteria’ under close examination.

Through gigapixel-technology (that’s at least 1.000.000.000 pixels) Second Canvas offers the opportunity to discover details in works of art, which would otherwise require a trip to the restorers’ workshop (or an up-and-close experience in the gallery that would set off most museums alarms). Using the app’s native multimedia content-features, museums have the ability to use the app for educational purposes and let visitors reach beyond the capabilities of the human eye. On a few select paintings, this even includes x-ray vision. If there was ever going to be an art-superhero, we’re pretty sure that would be one of their powers.

Up and close with Second Canvas.

The app has launched to great appraise, becoming one of the most downloaded educational applications for iOS in Spain in March, and has already been used for educational purposes in Argentina, Columbia and Peru.

In partnership with Madpixel, SMK hopes to join the wave of digital art experience via open access when we launch our own version of the Second Canvas app in April, in which a selection of masterworks from the collection will be available with rich interpretative material and deep zoom into the smallest details of the artworks.

We are thrilled to have our works join the steadily growing Second Canvas collection and we can’t wait to share this digitally enhanced experience with you all.

--

--