This is it. This is the last blow to the sovereign state of humanity’s soul. The machines are now better at art than we are—though, to be fair, they wouldn’t know what to paint if it weren’t for our masters of the craft.
To fill you in, a Dutch researcher named Tim Zaman has found a way to reproduce large-format painting reproductions at 600 pixels an inch. Not only that, but the Oce Printer, as it’s called, can stack ink in a way that mimics the brushstrokes of the original. The printer heads move over the canvas multiple times to create layers and layers of ink, building it up in much the same way a dye-sub printer works, as PSFK points out.
Is this depressing or amazing? Is this bad for the art market? Will reproductions suddenly flood the market as more and more masterpieces are recreated on the fly? Does any of this matter? Would you rather be a robot? What paintings would you scan to print out?
Watch a video of this terrifying and amazing device above, and one below of the research team scanning a Van Gogh to prep for a print.
RELATED: The 10 Weirdest Things Made With 3D Printers
[via PSFK]
