Blade Runner, the Aquarel Edition (ca. 2012)
August 24, 2024 1:21 AM Subscribe
"Memories. You're talking about memories." User @vga256@dialup.cafe posted about a mesmerizing piece of Internet art history over on Mastodon, and wrote about the recovery and safeguard of "Blade Runner: the Aquarel Edition" on the Internet Archive.
"twelve years ago, a painter by the name of anders ramsell painted 12,597 aquarelle paintings of blade runner, shot by shot, of the entire film edited down to ~35 minutes. it took two years of painstaking work, all done in his spare time after work each night.
the video circled around the web for a few years, and quietly disappeared from every single site it was hosted at.
a few months ago i spent a few hours digging for it, and finally found a copy of the original file.
i'm not sure how long it will last over at IA, so enjoy it while you can. it is a true achievement. 🙏"
"Did you find your precious photos?"
"twelve years ago, a painter by the name of anders ramsell painted 12,597 aquarelle paintings of blade runner, shot by shot, of the entire film edited down to ~35 minutes. it took two years of painstaking work, all done in his spare time after work each night.
the video circled around the web for a few years, and quietly disappeared from every single site it was hosted at.
a few months ago i spent a few hours digging for it, and finally found a copy of the original file.
i'm not sure how long it will last over at IA, so enjoy it while you can. it is a true achievement. 🙏"
"Did you find your precious photos?"
i'm not sure how long it will last...
But then again, who does?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:55 AM on August 24 [21 favorites]
But then again, who does?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 2:55 AM on August 24 [21 favorites]
This is quite lovely by the way, a real labor of love...a great find for Blade Runner fans. Thanks for sharing it.
It did of course immediately make me think how this is just the sort of creation that today someone would claim was made using "AI" rather than having been a labor of love painted by a human being 'in their spare time.' I guess there's something slightly poetic about that notion considering the subject matter and themes of the film itself, i.e. what it means to be human in the first place.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:09 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
It did of course immediately make me think how this is just the sort of creation that today someone would claim was made using "AI" rather than having been a labor of love painted by a human being 'in their spare time.' I guess there's something slightly poetic about that notion considering the subject matter and themes of the film itself, i.e. what it means to be human in the first place.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:09 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
It is both amazing and not surprising to see comments in the previously to the effect that this is bad and the artist has wasted his life.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:20 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:20 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
(Aquarelle means watercolour)
posted by zamboni at 5:29 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
posted by zamboni at 5:29 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
The art is beautiful and I'm grateful to be reminded of this again.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:41 AM on August 24
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:41 AM on August 24
Even before "A.I." people were on the lookout for fakes (and I'm not referencing replicants here). From the 2013 Metafilter conversation:
But it is also almost the type of thing I want to find out is somehow faked. Because the implication of hand-painting 12,597 animated watercolor paintings (or however I should phrase that) is almost too much for me to bear.
posted by kozad at 5:48 AM on August 24
But it is also almost the type of thing I want to find out is somehow faked. Because the implication of hand-painting 12,597 animated watercolor paintings (or however I should phrase that) is almost too much for me to bear.
posted by kozad at 5:48 AM on August 24
It is both amazing and not surprising to see comments in the previously to the effect that this is bad and the artist has wasted his life.
"Actually, it sucks. Everything sucks. And is a waste of the me. And everyone is stupid. Liking things is weak." --MeFi 2013, basically.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:53 AM on August 24 [5 favorites]
"Actually, it sucks. Everything sucks. And is a waste of the me. And everyone is stupid. Liking things is weak." --MeFi 2013, basically.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:53 AM on August 24 [5 favorites]
Fourteen year old Metafilter definitely was fourteen years old.
posted by mhoye at 6:24 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
posted by mhoye at 6:24 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
It's funny, because my 2014 experience of Metafilter was to look back at threads from 2003 and think "wow, we've matured a lot, haven't we?"
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:50 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 7:50 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
We continue to mature until we achieve full ethical and moral perfection, and then die. Just like Roy Batty!
posted by phooky at 7:55 AM on August 24 [7 favorites]
posted by phooky at 7:55 AM on August 24 [7 favorites]
Metafilter: the light that burns half as bright, burns twice as long!
posted by kokaku at 8:27 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 8:27 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
And we have burned so very long indeed
posted by aubilenon at 8:31 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 8:31 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
I want more likes, filter!
posted by mubba at 9:11 AM on August 24 [10 favorites]
posted by mubba at 9:11 AM on August 24 [10 favorites]
Interestingly, I've found the "how very dare anything be a video instead of a 600-page book of dense text without illustrations" folks have moved to Mastodon, alas.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:51 PM on August 24
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:51 PM on August 24
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posted by HearHere at 1:48 AM on August 24 [6 favorites]