We oftentimes speak of art and the influence it has got upon the lives of people, the importance of art in our culture, but do we always understand what is meant by the word “Art” and what experience the artist possesses? Unfortunately, this subject is not very often addressed. This is also true for the public domain.

The film “Tim’s Vermeer”, however, mainly focuses on Tim Jenison who dreamed about copying Vermeer’s paintings and this led him to discovering a new way of painting, which, as he believes, Ver; eer himself also used in his work. This involves not only camera obscura, but also mirrors. The film makes us think about what it means to be an artist and how technologies can assist people in creating works of art.

Modern technologies have revolutionized the understanding of an artist’s work. They allow people to express themselves in ways, unthought of fifty or thirty years ago. As the film shows, it doesn’t take to be a genius to produce pieces of art anymore. Tim Jenison does not use any extraordinary, advanced technologies. What he uses is just correct understanding and successful application of the laws of physics. However, for a modern technology user it is not even necessary to know physics to achieve great artistic results. Practically anyone, with minimal effort, can master basic Photoshop features. Modern cameras allow even a layman to make quality photographs. Almost anyone can learn to make animation, etc. When people look at this work they will probably not think about the kind of technology the person used to produce it. If a photo is beautiful, people will admire it. In a way, this was the case with Vermeer paintings. For the majority of the admirers of this great artist it is not so important how exactly he painted them and what devices he used to achieve this goal. What is important that centuries after they were painted, the pictures are still capable of impressing people, to stir emotions inside their souls, to make their hearts beat faster. There is a time in history when every technology or technique is new, unusual and revolutionary in the field where it is used. For instance, there was a time when fresco was something people had never known before. It was a revolution in art. There are still other techniques and approaches which appear to be unthinkable nowadays and are heavily criticized for breaking the canons, but with the time they will, no doubt, become an integral part of art. Similarly many people did not understand Fresco as a technique of art at the time when it had just been invented. It would be very logical for those people to protest against this technique expressing their strongest belief that this was not a way to create art. However, in our time this technique is associated with art as much as sculpture or water-colors. The majority of people tend to be conservative by their nature. It is usually not easy for them to accept something new. Nowadays, this can be the reaction to art produced with the help of technologies. But there might come a time when art without technologies will be impossible to imagine.

Tim Jenison’s experiment shows us that there can be various points of view and interpretations of what art is. To understand whether Tim Jenison and the products of his experiment should be respected, viewed as art, etc. everyone should answer the question: “does it matter how they were created or does only the result matter?” The answer is subjective and everyone should choose a suitable one for themselves.