VanGoYourself is designed to help people rediscover and engage with classic paintings in a new way. It allows them to recreate classic scenes from some of world’s most famous paintings (over 100 works from many collections in Europe and North America) using their own cameras and smartphones – and above all themselves – that they can then share with their friends on social media.
The site features works from Masters such as Van Gogh or Rembrandt – with scores of paintings from a variety of collections across European and North American countries all just waiting to be recreated! Visitors to the site can decide how ambitious they feel, then choose a painting that is ‘easy’ or ‘challenging’ to recreate. They can also select paintings using criteria such as ‘selfie potential’ or ‘for lovers’.
VanGoYourself offers a genuinely different and surprisingly deep way for visitors to engage with heritage, based on emotion, playfulness and curiosity. Although the interaction is fun, recreating a painting forces the user to engage deeply with the aesthetic composition and content of the artwork, and by extension, the intent of the original artist. As well as existing as a simple online service, the idea can be deployed by tourist offices, museums, cities, tour guides, etc to promote specific destinations, sites and events. Produced by Culture 24, VanGoYourself is a Europeana Innovation. It was built by Surface Impression in the UK and designed by Spild af Tid in Denmark.