Category: Digital art

I make pretty pictures, asked and unasked. I do work on commission, intended to explain or sell projects. And I make free work. Art for art’s sake. Work to decorate your wall. But made with the same tools and techniques, the same hardware and software, the same knowledge and skills, the same enthusiasm, the same creativity. Spherical and tubular panoramas, paintifications, virtual reliefs, fictional statues and more ….

Spherical panoarama, or little planet, made of twelve photographs taken at the lawn in the little park in front of Saint Lwarence's Church in Rotterdam

Digital art / Photography / Rotterdam

19. June 2017

A New Park, a New Panorama: Saint-Lawrence’s Planet

There was a time when I made a lot of spherical and tubular panoramas but the last one, at Kruisplein, dates back to over a year ago. There are two reasons for this. First of all, those little planets are actually quite time-consuming. Well, Photoshop takes a lot of work out of your hands, but you still have to work hard to eliminate minor irregularities, fill in missing information, and tweak details. Secondly, I became a lot more critical in choosing locations. I am looking for special places, geometric shapes, beautiful compositions or other reasons. And I just do not...

Christmas card of the author: a paintified photograph of the maritime outdoor museum at Leuvehaven in Rotterdam, covered with snow

Digital art / Geen categorie / Rotterdam

26. December 2016

Winter in Rotterdam: a white Christmas animation

Anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all. It’s hard to say whether or not the boring winters of the last few years are an effect of global warming. For which, by the way, there is enough real evidence; that’s what scientists (or at least 99.9% of them) agree on. Anyway, the last few winters were exceptionally mild. Especially here in the southwest of the Netherlands. On television I see people skating on natural ice in the northern province of Friesland or a beautiful blanket of snow in the eastern region of the Achterhoek. But the last time Rotterdam colored white...

Close-up of the Earthrise stained glass window showing a piece of the globe with Europe, the Atlantic and North America

Digital art / Space art

5. September 2016

Earthrise as a Stained Glass Window

A few weeks ago I made a virtual mosaic, inspired by the famous Earthrise photograph, one of the iconic images of the twentieth century, which has had a huge impact on the way we think about our planet. Lonely This Christmas The Apollo 8 astronauts astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were incredible far from home over Christmas 1968. If the phrase to boldly go where no one has gone before has ever been appropriate, it was in this case. Never before had anyone traveled beyond Earth orbit, which is in fact only a few hundred kilometers from...

Detail of the Earthrise mosaic, a remake of the famous photo made in 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission

Digital art / Space art

6. August 2016

Earthrise: Remake as a Digital Mosaic

Earthrise is the name of one of the most iconic images of the twentieth century. The photo of the Earth above the gray landscape of the Moon was made by astronaut Bill Anders during the Apollo 8 mission on December 24, 1968, Christmas Eve. On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Earthrise, NASA made this video, which shows in detail how the photograph came about. Fascinating, because it makes you feel like you are there in person. Merry Xmas Apollo 8 was a legendary achievement: the first three people traveling beyond Earth orbit. Their capsule brought them more than...

Virtual relief made of orange peel, created using autocad, 3ds max and photoshop

Digital art / Visualisation

12. May 2016

Orange and the Colors of Reykjavik

“Did you know that the Netherlands made it to the Football World Cup final seven times but didn’t win even once?” A brilliant quote by Kim van Kooten, alias steerswoman Brechtje in Mission Earth, the acclaimed Star Trek pastiche by VPRO television. The series is set in 2063, so it is not unlikely that there is some truth in this prediction. Or even that the Orange team may become world champion for once. If not, we haven individual athletes like Dafne Schippers and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (probably the only athlete who has all five Olympic rings in her name). Orange Moments...

A virtual relief, creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface,, done as a colorful tile mosaic in a white wooden frame.

Digital art

4. February 2016

Virtual Reliefs: 3d Illusions on a Flat Surface

A while ago I visited an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, dedicated to the work of Jan Schoonhoven (1914-1994). An artist from Delft who is best known for the cardboard reliefs he made. They made him world-famous, and he even had to hire assistants in order to meet the demand. One of his reliefs was auctioned in 2010 for more than 800.000 euros. Yet he continued to work until his retirement as a civil servant at the Dutch Mail. Reportedly the money he earned with his art was to a large extent spent on the jazz concerts that his wife...

Artist impression of a fictional Icelandic cafe, warm and cosy inside, with paintified landscape photo's on the wall, beer on the bar and the Icelandic flag on the tables, and with a snowy landscape outside

Digital art / Visualisation

27. November 2015

Virtual Iceland – Cafe with a View

Iceland, the land of ice and fire, volcanoes and glaciers, fjords and lakes, hot baths and boiling mud puddles. The land of four seasons in a single day, where the sun, the wind and the clouds provide a continuous and spectacular light show. The land where nature is leading, where fords at some moments are suddenly not that fordable. I was in Iceland in the summers of 2005 and 2008 and in the winter of 2012. Statistically, it is about time to make another trip to the island on the edge of the world, the most beautiful place on the...

The melting pot version of a colorfull composition with 48 flags of European countries, as decoration on a stucco wall

Digital art

6. July 2015

My Way to Minimize the Effects of a Grexit

It was perhaps not the best time to do something creative with the flags of the 28 member states of the European Union. With the results of the Greek referendum in this morning’s papers, the future is uncertain. There may very well be only 27 members states somewhere in the very near future. And in that case my flag project is instantly outdated. Moreover, one of the characteristics of a political union like the EU is that countries can join or leave. In the past, only the first happened and currently the second option seems to become fashionable but the current gloomy mood...

Een virtueel relief waarin de vlaggen van de 28 EU-lidstaten zijn verwerkt

Design / Digital art

8. June 2015

The Colors of the Union: 304888344611713860501504000000 Ways to Make a Flag

In 2002, my former employer Rem Koolhaas designed a flag for the European Union. His idea: a kind of bar code with the colors of the flags of the various member states arranged from east to west. One of the places where the design was used is the Museumpark in Rotterdam. A brilliant idea, in my opinion: it symbolizes variety and unity and it is immediately recognizable. The flag may only be a bit hard to draw without errors, but that’s true for many flags. (How are the American stars arranged? And did we start with a red or a...

Spherical panorama Bourtange, The Netherlands

Digital art

27. April 2015

The Link between Bourtange and Rotterdam (and between a Pentagon and a Sphere)

A few weeks ago I was in Bourtange, the well-preserved fortified village in the Dutch province of Groningen. At least, I’ve always thought that Bourtange was a nicely preserved piece of history. But that’s not entirely correct. For more than a century, the fortress was completely gone and Bourtange was a boring farming village. In the nineteenth century, the fortifications were demolished and the canals were closed, which happened in many places in those days. Reconstruction Not until the sixties of the twentieth century came the idea to rebuild the fortress. In the seventies and eighties that idea was carried...