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  • #449027
    bvanevery
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        It has occurred to me that in digital media, in principle there is no limit to the size of an image one could work on. One could simply zoom in and out in one’s painting program, switching from “the big picture” to any specific detail. In essence, one could be working on “virtual murals”.

        I’m sure there are practical issues when working on things that are so big. Only got so much RAM, computer bogs down, etc. But in this day and age, these are within the realm of the technically solveable. We’ve got a lot of GB of RAM to play with now. We’ve got pretty high resolution monitors to look at “details”. We’ve got vast hard drives. Off-the-shelf software packages may keel over and die trying to work on such things, but there’s nothing stopping a computer programmer like myself from writing a beast that would work. Except the use of my time, of course.

        Anyways, gigantic output has to eventually be displayed somehow. 2 candidates present themselves.

        The 1st is “big stitched-together monitor arrays”. I don’t know how those have evolved, but I’m pretty sure they’re a thing. During the dot.com bust, I tried to get a contract working on such a project. Unfortunately I hadn’t kept up with the evolution of the 3D HW, and pitched a software rasterization method for edge joining problems. The interviewing engineer wasn’t impressed because he’d thought it should be done with 3d texture mapping facilities, and he was probably right. Anyways, that was in the early 2000s, so the industry has probably seen 15 years worth of development since then.

        The 2nd is giant printed paper. Is that how billboards get made? What kind of resolution and quality does such giant output have? I’m not expecting anything archival. Rather, one would hope for something cheap enough, that one could make “a copy” for one’s gallery show, and another copy for somewhere else as need be, to the degree that one wishes to have giant images in various locations. Adequately supporting such images may be a challenge, but for now let’s assume the goal is to just stick ’em up somehow. Or just scroll ’em out… walk into a gallery with a Moses-like costume, present one’s Great Scroll.

        Why produce images at a giant scale at all? Well, awhile ago I read about a 19th century painter who did the largest oil painting in the world, at the time it was made. The Atlanta Cyclorama and other panoramic paintings existed at a time when they didn’t have film projectors or other modern display media. I find the whole cultural exercise a bit fascinating, and imagine that modern people might find them to be as well. Monet’s Water Lilies at Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris are some of my favorite works, and these are tiny paintings compared to what the various panoramists pulled off.

        I suppose there’s the “giant scale that you piece together to be arbitrarily large”, and then there’s the scale of “pretty big that you can dominate a typical gallery with the image”. Like 1 continuous roll of paper, that is printed.

        Why not simply display with a projector? Well, I bet at large enough scales the resolution would be inferior. Also the lighting, and people shadowing the work as they view it, could be a problem. That said, I’ve seen plenty of art galleries with ceiling mounted projectors. I think the bottom line is ‘cuz this could be cool. People might pay more attention just because it’s a gimmick, or arguably a different medium, maybe with its own validities. It worked for 19th century oil painters… can it work for us?

        I suppose there are practical resolution limits based on viewing distance. A viewer has to be very close to the work, to appreciate excruciatingly fine detail. So that might mean 12 feet tall is a practical maximum height, although the image could be arbitrarily wide. Panoramic indeed!

        I wonder how heavy such a paper roll becomes?

        #540404

        A local firm makes inkjet printed billboards and murals, some 20–30 feet long.

        Doug


        We must leave our mark on this world

        #540406
        bvanevery
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            Any idea of a rough ballpark what they charge for that sort of service?

            #540405

            I have no idea what the costs are, here’s a link to one firm in Skelmersdale.
            [/URL] I am sure there are firms in the USA who can do that.

            Doug


            We must leave our mark on this world

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