petros vrellis creates interactive animation of vincent van gogh's 'the starry night'

greek artist and electrical engineer petros vrellis has created an interactive animation of vincent van gogh’s painting ‘the starry night’. left alone, the visualization sends the paint daubs of the saint-rémy night sky into swirling patterns of motion, governed by the mathematics of particle dynamics. a touch interface allows viewers to deform the image, altering both the particle flow and the sound. when not touched, the visualization will return to its natural state.

watch petros vrellis’s interactive visualization of ‘the starry night’

vrellis used openframeworks to create the work, with multitouch tracking via ofxkinct and ofxopenCV. the musical backdrop is created using a MIDI interface to create an ambient tone that can also be altered in realtime. the animation involves about 80,000 particles, drawn as small openGL minimaps, whose motion is determined  by a fluid-like algorithm. trial and error determined his settings for the velocity field and music composition, both designed to resonate with van gogh’s original artwork.

the flow of the paint daubs is shifted by a user’s touch