A novel approach to painting powered by Ambient Intelligence

Today, many forms of art are influenced by the emergence of interactive technologies, including the mixing of physical media with digital technology for forming new hybrid works of art and the usage of mobile phones to create art projected on public spaces. Many artists and painters use digital technology to augment their work creatively and technically. Many believe that the time of transition from traditional analogue art to postmodern digital art that is, to an art grounded in codes rather than images has arrived*. The research work described in this paper contributes towards supporting, through the use of Ambient Intelligence technologies, traditional painters’ creativity, as well as methods and techniques of art masters. The paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of an intelligent environment and its software infrastructure, to form a digitally augmented Art Workshop. Its practical deployment was conducted in an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) simulation space and four feasibility studies were conducted. In each of these studies an oil painting was created following an alternative, yet accredited by artists, approach. The workshop was also evaluated with the involvement of real users and artists in the context of a user based usability study.