Metropolitan Museum Revives Renaissance Sculpture

Visitors are invited to communicate with a digital puppetry of the ancient sculpture.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is staging a performance to mark the return of the 500-year-old Italian sculpture “Adam” after its twelve year restoration. A digital screen of a human height is installed next to the sculpture to display its animated copy. According to Digital Arts, visitors are able to ask the sculpture how it was created, how it traveled the world, and finally, how it was restored.

It took two years for Reid Farrington to create the performance “The Return.” An actor covered with movement indicators is seen on the screen as Adam. The actor is shot with 16 cameras, and IKinema LiveAction for Unreal Engine 4 software transforms the video into a digital format.

The performance runs all day during Museum hours, and needs three actors working shifts in order to constantly run the show.

The “Adam” sculpture was created by Italian sculptor Tullio Lombardo at the end of 15th century. In October 2002 it accidentally broke. It took twelve years to restore the statue.


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