The SMK Blog

Are you one of the fans of the new Netflix miniseries Alias Grace, adapted from Margaret Atwood’s bestselling 1996 novel? Some of us at SMK Open are following the series closely, not just because the story is compelling, but because our public domain collection is a key source to the scenography in several of the houses where Grace’s destiny unfolds.

From episode 1 of Alias Grace on Netflix, featuring two highlights from SMK’s public domain collection; Pilo’s Frederik V in his Anointing Robes (1750) and Juel’s The Dancing Glade at Sorgenfri (c. 1800).

For open access, reductionism may be the way forward.

Summer came and went and in the meantime, the team behind Art Jewels [link no longer active] have been hard at work going through the +250 entries to the jewelry design contest and electing a winner.

The winning design in Art Jewels: ‘Melancholy’ necklace by 3different

At SMK, we’d really really like to give guests easy, flexible access to information on the collection. We’d also really really like to avoid all the distractions of QR codes and dubious Bluetooth connections.

As promised, we want to share some more of our favourite details from the artworks that are the sources of inspiration in Art Jewels [link no longer active] — the jewelry design contest of SMK + Shapeways.

L.A. Ring, At the French Windows. The Artist’s Wife, 1897, Statens Museum for Kunst. Public domain

The weekend is approaching, which means lots of free time to get creative in our SMK + Shapeways jewelry design contest [link no longer active]. What better time to share some more of our favourite details from the selected SMK artworks that provide the raw materials and inspiration for the contest?

Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor, 1901, Statens Museum for Kunst. Public domain

Imagine if you could wear your favourite artworks as jewels? If you could boast a Hammershøi necklace, a pair of Cranach earrings, or a Gijsbrechts bracelet? This is the concept of the design contest Art Jewels [link no longer active] created in a collaboration between SMK Open and the Dutch-American 3D print community Shapeways.com.

A selection of the designs that we’re seeing in the Art Jewels design contest created by SMK Open and Shapeways [link no longer active]

Guest at an SMK Fridays event playing with 3D scans of hard-to-access SMK sculptures

Several of us responded with enthusiasm to the recent news that The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened up their digitised collections to free and unrestricted re-use. Closely after this announcement followed the news that The Met’s director Thomas Campbell resigned under pressure due to a growing financial deficit. This gave rise to a response that ties the two together, critically questioning whether The Met’s decision to stop charging for their digitised images is viable in a time of financial constraint.

Johan Thomas Lundbye, Zealand Landscape. Open Country in North Zealand, 1842, inv. no. KMS402. SMK, public domain

“What kind of ghost continues to haunt the scanned 3D model of the sculpture?” — paraphrased from a conversation with the artist-hacktivists Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles, who scanned and released a 3D model of the Nefertiti bust at Neues Museum in Berlin in December 2015

View of the digital inside of the Discobulus made with the digital cast. Screenshot by artist Honza Hoeck, courtesy of the artist.