When I studied Sculpture and Painting in college I thought a lot about the intersection of painting and 3D objects. Combined was my dream of creating video as moving paintings. This video above, aka Machinima, called Watch the World(s) documents the creation of a virtual 3D copy of Vincent van Gough’s painting Stary Night.

This video is a work of art in of itself. To watch the 3D peice in Second Life appear is so moving and beautiful. Not to mention the song by Don McLean called Vincent (aka Starry Starry Night) as the sound track. What a perfect choice! Its all the work of Robbie Dingo. (that’s his “digital alter ego” a Second Life avatar..)

Cory Doctorow mentions another famous artist who attempted something similar,

What Robbie Dingo has done is something Akira Kurosawa only envisioned: brought Van Gough’s masterpiece to rich, three dimensional life, and for a brief moment, recast it as a living place.

This is a reference to a part of Kurosawa’s movie Dreams called Crows. (This movie is in my top 5 favorite movies of all time)

A brilliantly-colored vignette featuring director Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh. An art student finds himself inside the vibrant and sometimes chaotic world inside Van Gogh’s artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him. The student loses track of the artist (who is missing an ear and nearing the end of his life) and travels through other works trying to find him. Van Gogh’s painting Wheat Field with Crows is an important element in this dream.

Now we have a 3D world, Second Life, that made it easy to create a film/art PLACE you can exist in. Ever dream of living in a painting? Well now you can. Wow!

via Boing Boing and The Official Linden Blog