A European Union programme is letting blind people experience famous paintings for the first time. It uses three dimensional (3D) printing to recreate famous paintings so they can be touched.

One painting printed with the new technology is Gustav Klimt’s TheKiss. It is a popular attraction at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria. The painting shows a man and a woman standing in a field filled with flowers. They are wearing gold robes and have their arms around each other. The man leans down to kiss the woman.

Klimt finished the painting in 1908. Until now, people who had trouble seeing could not appreciate the artwork. But thanks to the reproduction they can touch the piece and feel the ridges and depressions. Andreas Reichinger started making 3D versions of artwork in 2010. He said this reproduction was his most difficult project because the couple’s robes are so detailed.

Dominika Raditsch is a blind museum visitor. She touched the reproduction. As she moved her hands around it she said, “Exactly, can you see these? There are so many details.” Raditsch said she can imagine what the original painting looks like when she touches the reproduction. “It’s somehow round. You can feel it. It comes with it. And in many places it’s so smooth. And then I think to myself: it probably shines too!” Raditsch said.

The Belvedere is not the only museum to have 3D versions of its artwork. Some of the pieces at the Prado, in Madrid, Spain, have reproductions that can be touched. But the piece in Vienna has one special part: it is made with widely available (可获得的) 3D printing technology. That means one day, blind art fans anywhere in the world could download the source files and print the reproductions themselves.

“With depressingly few exceptions, performances are dull and lack vitality…

After years of trying to convince myself otherwise, I now feel sure that ballet is dying.”

-----Jennifer Homans, Apollo’s Angels

Is ballet dead? Has the art form evolved to depression? Jennifer Homans’s conclusion to her fascinating history of ballet, Apollo’s Angels, is worrying.

It appears that ballet’s pulse continues to beat strongly, however, especially with a Tchaikovsky defibrillator attached. So why are some dance commentators arguing that ballet is dying? And do they have a point?

To start with, how do you define ballet? What is ballet today? Consider popular modern classics like Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, where dancers wear pointy shoes and sneakers, combining contemporary and classical vocabulary together. Or closer to home, there is Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake, which layers elements of Petipa’s choreography(编舞) with a contemporary theme and aesthetic. Many contemporary choreographers all embrace classical form and principles, then manipulate(操纵) the rules. ② .

The line between contemporary dance and ballet is vague. In an interview with The Telegraph (2015), British choreographer Mattew Bourne acknowledges that this “cross-fertilisation” between contemporary dance and ballet continues to grow, as evidenced by the rise in new commissions from contemporary choreographers at the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. Referring to Homans’s book, Bourne believes what has changed is that “the dance forms are coming closer together”. Not dying, but merging. Reinventing. This has been the case amongst Australasian ballet companies for many years now. ③ .

Homans writes that ballet’s decline began after the passing of Ashton and Balanchine. Something ahs changed, certainly. A stylisic transition----from neo-classical to contemporary ballet----has occurred. ④

Our art form’s evolution has always been with extinction. Prominent dance critic with The New York Times, Alastair Macaulay, says: “ballet has died again and again over the centuries,” and yet, “phoenix-like, rose again from its ashes”. History shows there were periods where ballet hibernated and lacked popularity. This coincided with the art form’s changing forums.

So here is the irony: what sells best, still, are reproductions of Petipa’s classics. A season without a Tchaikovsky score is a financial risk. And without Nutcracker(《胡桃夹子》), half the ballet companies in North America would not exist. Admittedly, as a dancer, my favourite roles---Albrecht, Prince Siegfried and Romeo----were from the classical canon; I am a traditionalist at heart (who loves to be challenged by good contemporary ballets). A part of the charm behind classical repertoire, for me, was in reproducing the glories of past greats. Classical ballet’s framework supports the modern process of bench-marking.

Perhaps Jennifer Homans’s thoughts are not completely unfounded. Perhaps ballet is dying for some. Ballet’s evolution has been delayed by its audiences. And as Homans suggests in her epilogue, perhaps also by its creatives.

Now here is a bold prediction. In line with the Royal Ballet’s programming in Brisbane this year----of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale, and Wayne MacGregor’s Woolf Works----over the next 20 years, ballet’s reliance on Petipa will decrease. Contemporary ballets and merge-styled ballets will produce their box-office influence ever more.

Why?

It is simple: our audiences will be ready for ballet to change again.

London-based artist Sarah Ezekiel has won international recognition for her vivid inspiring pictures. But her work is all the more remarkable for the fact that she has a medical condition that has left her unable to move her arms.

Ezekiel’s pictures are painstakingly produced, using the movement of her eyes and specialized technology that relays those movements to a computer.

The eye-tracking technology gives Ezekiel a platform for artistic expression. Otherwise, she would be stopped by a rare disease—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Ezekiel showed no signs of the condition until 2000 when she noticed some weakness in her left arm. Within months, she was diagnosed (诊断) with ALS. She describes her first five years living with ALS as a “dark wilderness” and “very lonely”. Today, she can neither speak nor move but says “technology has made my life worth living”.

Ezekiel uses a system made by Tobii Dynavox, a company specializing in: “Eye Gaze” devices to help people with medical conditions communicate. Its technology uses projectors, cameras and algorithms (算法) to track the tiny movements of the user’s eyes and control a cursor (光标) on a screen.

Ezekiel, who studied art when she was young, began painting using the Eye Gaze device in 2012. Although her work has been exhibited across the UK, Ezekiel says she’s still learning and that there are always new techniques to explore. Computer-based art has a history dating back to the 1950s. Over time, algorithm-based shapes made way for software that allowed greater skills, and the computer screen became a digital cloth for painting.

“The strange thing is that my style hasn’t changed,” Ezekiel says of her work. “My Eye Gaze work is similar to the work I did with my hands before.”

“Being an artist by means of technology has totally improved my outlook on life and opened up many other possibilities for me,” says Ezekiel. “I couldn’t create for years and it’s fantastic that technology has made it possible again.”