Tims Vemeer

"Tim's Vemeer" is a documentary movie about an inventor called Tim. One day, he was given a book called "Secret Knowledge" written by artist David Hockney. The book argues that the artists of the renaissance used mirrors and lenses to help develop their art. This revelation on the role of engineering in art set Tim down his quest to understand the work of Vemeer by reverse engineering a machine that could to replicate his paintings. The results are jawdropping and the uncanny success of his invention suggests that Vemeer too might have used a similar device. This is exciting because it changes one understanding of Vemeer as an artist and his art. It means that as an artist, Vemeer had to have an understanding of mechanical tooling to make such devices. It also means he would have had to understand physical phenomena such as light and optics to manipulate the image. And it would also mean he would need to understand geometric perspective to correct the optical distortions of the device. It also means the outcome is less a mystical creation coming from an inscrutible flash of inspiration. Like a surgeon, Vemeer uses this knowledge to operate on human perception but instead of the scapel and the knife, his tools become light and paint. It means that artist and is art is less shaman, more scientist. Less alchemy, more maths. Less inspiration, more process.