Imagine if you could paint one of Tom Thomson most famous works, while brushing the shroud of history from his story...

Painting The Myth, a new system for interactive biography, allows you to illustrate the life and times of artists, their works, their histories and their stories by moving through increasingly rich and detailed layers of their best known works.

This unique digital storytelling experience merges form and content into one engaging look at the story behind the canvas, the secrets inside the history, and the artist in each of us.

Painting The Myth provides accessibility through compelling interaction.

'Painting the Myth' is a rich new media installation that demonstrates unified narrative layering harmonized with the action of artistic painting that together, provide a compelling immersive experience.

Participants first encounter a blank canvas on an easel and a painter's brush. Behind the easel are a video camera and projector. As the participant paints with the painter's brush the video camera tracks the motion of the brush and in response to the brushing the projector projects brush strokes, which combine to paint the painting. Over time as the participant paints the painting, stroke upon stroke a layered narrative is revealed in harmony with the completeness of the painting.

Visually, the painting is revealed with each brush stroke. This is synchronized to a layered audio narrative complete with sound effect and music. Experientially, the participant is literally painting the story.

Please have a look at the demonstration video .

The development team was James Chaarani, Gordon Culley, Trevor Haldenby and Anthony F. Saad.

This prototype was created at the Canadian Film Centre's Habitat New Media Lab during the Winter Residency of 2004/05.