Talking paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
Two artworks at MSK started answering visitors out loud. Press a button, ask anything, and the painting replies in your own language in under two seconds.
A fine arts museum might be the last place you expect this
MSK Ghent holds work from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Talking tech is … not the house style.
The Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK) is one of Belgium’s oldest and most prestigious art museums, with a collection that runs from medieval panels to twentieth century modernism. Its authority rests on careful, curator led interpretation, so an AI that talks to visitors was never going to be an easy sell. But the first run proved successful enough to warant a second installation.
These talking paintings are another way of getting to know the painting, the artist, its history and time period. It allows visitors to ask any question they want. They get an answer regardless of how difficult, funny or absurd their question might be.
Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, Belgium. Photo © 2008 Stuppie.
The Cattle Shed by Jenny Montigny
The first painted figure to speak was a humble anonymous woman sitting in a shed.
Jenny Montigny painted Flemish rural life in the early twentieth century. In The Cattle Shed a woman sits with children and a cow behind her. She looks sad because farm life isn’t particularly easy. Possibly the kids are annoying, and we can’t imagine it smelled great in there. Visitors are intrigued by this sad mystery woman, but now they can ask her directly, and she answers as a woman of her own time and place.
Hear a real conversation
Recorded on an early voice model. Voice quality today is considerably better, but the answers give a fair sense of what the painting can handle.
Nel Deurinckx by Rik Wouters
The first painting drew crowds, so MSK added a second voice.
Hélène “Nel” Deurinckx was the wife and muse of the Belgian Fauvist painter Rik Wouters, the subject of dozens of his canvases. She answers in real time, and she is happy to talk about what it is like to be painted, over and over again, and sitting still and being stared at for god knows how many hours.
Hear a real conversation
Filmed during installation at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. Every answer is generated on the spot.
Three steps, no app
A button and a microphone. That is the whole interface.
Pick a language
English, Dutch, French or German, chosen with one press. No download, no QR code, no account.
Hold and ask
Hold the button, speak your question into the microphone, let go. Children work this out without being told.
The painting answers
The reply comes back in your language, in under two seconds. Then you ask the next thing.
Two national news items and a room full of teenagers
The museum expected a quiet experiment but the talking paintings got national coverage and a noticeably younger audience.
The installation on national news.
Getting young people to think about AI, in front of a painting.
What visitors said
Unscripted reactions, filmed in the gallery.
Click a page to read it full size.
What museums ask us first
Does the AI make things up about the artwork?
No no no. Every answer is built from source material the curators supply. When a question falls outside it, the painting says so in character instead of guessing.
Which languages does it speak?
English, Dutch, French and German at MSK Ghent. The system is not limited to four, so the language mix follows your visitor mix.
Do visitors need a phone or an app?
No. The installation is a panel with a button and a microphone next to the artwork. People are looking at the art, not their phone.
Would this work with our collection?
Almost certainly. Any artwork with a recognisable figure works well, and the same approach runs on statues, objects and historical characters.
Ghent was not the only one
The same idea, in a war museum, a Roman site, science centre, …
Want your collection to talk back?
Tell us which artwork you would start with. We will tell you honestly whether it has enough to say.
