Still / Motion

Independent editing study 01

Still / Motion

How can a fixed image feel like it moves? Two artworks, a shift in rhythm, and 34 seconds to follow where the eye goes.

A self-initiated, AI-assisted art and culture edit using The Met’s CC0 public-domain images. Created as a portfolio study; no client work is implied.

Watch the cut ↓See the edit
00:34 · Vertical filmSound on · On-screen text

01 / The editorial idea

A cut that follows the eye.

Hokusai’s crest pulls attention upward; the next crop drops toward the boats. Van Gogh’s brushstrokes call for a slower, circulating pace. The edit changes its timing with the shape of each work, then puts both rhythms in one frame.

  1. Rise, then fall.Full print → crest → boats, with hard cuts at each shift.
  2. Change the pulse.Hold longer on the painted sky and cypress.
  3. See both at once.One crash, one current; the viewer completes the motion.
Ten frames tracing the edit from opening text, through close views of Hokusai’s wave and van Gogh’s landscape, to a side-by-side comparison and final statement.
Selected frames from the 34-second cut. The sound is original and synthesized; the visual movement comes from crop, timing, and typography.

02 / Artwork and rights

The source stays visible.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art marks both works as Public Domain. Its Open Access policy makes these images available under CC0. The audiovisual edit and sound were made for this independent study.

Artwork 01 · Woodblock print

Under the Wave off Kanagawa

Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), ca. 1830–32. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939; JP2972.

Artwork record and Public Domain notice ↗ · Source image ↗

Read the on-screen text

A still image can move you.

A wave on paper. It never moves.

The curve pulls your eye upward.

Then it falls with the boats.

Motion happens between shapes.

A field in oil. Another rhythm.

Brushstrokes bend the sky.

The dark cypress holds the current.

One eye, two rhythms. A crash. A current.

The artwork stays still. Your eye does the moving.

Self-initiated · AI-assisted editing study. Art: Hokusai and van Gogh; images: The Met Open Access (CC0). Original sound.