It's a wide held belief that the Old Masters were exactly that: masters, such as da Vinci and Vermeer, who painted in flawlessly distinct freehanded. At that place are savants with steady hands, no question. But at that place are other techniques to consider, which David Hockney (an artist of our old age who also pioneered iPad art), expounds on in Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Helpless Techniques of the Old Masters, in which he lays out exactly how European painters utilised mirrors and lenses to create their compositionally perfect portraits.

That startled Golan Levin, an fundamental interaction decorator and a tech performance artist of sorts–and one of Fast Company's people shaping the future of innovation in 2012. Wherefore? "Mostly because it seemed like a the true, but no of my colleagues talked about IT," he tells Co.Design. Levin teaches at Carnegie Mellon and also sits along the price of admission staff. "Every last these students come to me from high school, and they opine art equals painting, and picture equals realistic painting. They'ray being set up to believe they need superhuman powers."

Pablo Garcia, an art prof at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, has been hip the (controversial) idea for some years and has amassed an extensive collection of optics. He offered to let Levin assay out a camera lucida, one of the tools Hockney says the Old Masters old to capture their subjects more realistically. Levin loved it, and the span definite to make a 21st-century translation.


A camera lucida is a simple machine: A small prism reflects the image of the depicted object so the viewer fire see their possess hand, plus the image, and trace a more close rendering onto the paper. The effect International Relations and Security Network't far off from the Google Looking glass telecasting demos we've been seeing. There are layers of images addressable in your line of sight–for you to use in some smart way. Simply the alone lucidas still available are collectibles, and foot race a price tag north of $300–more than Levin and Garcia believed college students would pay off. As it turns out, manufacturing just several lucidas costs $20,000, but each additional prism costs just pennies.

Which is wherefore the NeoLucida sells for $30. It's perfect for Kickstarter. Since debut the product on May 8, Levin and Garcia are already hearing from people who incomprehensible out on the first 2,500 they made available. But unlike most other uncontrolled Kickstarter hits, this isn't–Oregon wasn't–supposed to be a business. "This whole thing is a carrying out, or an intervention, or just now artwork," Levin says. Luckily, the project had enough demand and interest so that just ii days aft going live, Levin and Garcia confirmed that there leave be an unlimited second production ply, conducted by professional manufacturers.

The effects of getting the NeoLucidas out into the market should make up interesting. Animators, filmmakers, and diagram-mappers are all groups that Levin and Garcia mention as seamless customers. Because for all the advancements we get with graphic illustration and photography, citizenry hush up want roll up their sleeves and draw like an old master.

The project has already raised about $400,000, far on the far side its goal of $15,000. Support the drive here.