Comparisons of Virtual Starry Night and Crows

In both of the videos, the viewer sees different representations of Van Gogh’s work. Through Van Gogh’s Starry Night and a recreation of it on the computer game, Second Life, we see that both are almost identical, sharing everything from the Church- building to the skycaps of mountains and stars. However, the recreation gives the viewer a total hands-on view of the environment. What was once only one perspective now becomes a landscape to explore. The creator of the replica also put in a lot of new aspects into the work. Since only one perspective is available in Van Gogh’s work, the creator had to make up some of the other visual parts in the 3-D world on his own.

In Crows, the viewer is literally brought to life in the paintings, seemingly blurring reality and art.  He is able to even (try) to have a conversation with the painter himself.

In the Second Life version of Starry Night, the viewer has many freedoms in viewing the work, but only through the virtual realm. The short film, Crows, depicts the man viewing the art in a physical state, but this is only in a dream-like state. Either way, both are inaccessible in actual, physical reality.