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The Room That Preserved the Last Jump
I chose The Met’s Swiss automaton frog, created around 1820, as my starting point. Rather than redesigning the artifact itself, I imagined the world surrounding it: a private 19th-century collector’s and watchmaker’s room where the automaton has just been activated.
The central idea is a subtle rupture in time. The tiny mechanical frog has made its final jump, but for a fraction of a second, the room seems to remember its previous position. The faint temporal trace around the automaton represents that “last jump” — not as a fantasy portal, but as a quiet physical anomaly.
I built the scene in FLORA, preserving the automaton’s recognizable historical identity, delicate scale, materials, and details while constructing a believable environment around it. The antique desk, watchmaking tools, mechanical diagrams, glass cases, and warm historical lighting establish the world, while the subtle temporal echo provides the narrative twist.
The goal was to make the viewer look twice: first seeing a beautiful historical object, then realizing that something impossible has just happened.
Original artwork: The Met, Automaton, Swiss, ca. 1820.
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This is my 2nd Submission
Check my 1st submission at this link:
https://on.contra.com/CbjhLm
Inspired by: Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, Francisco Goya, 1787–88, from The Met's open archive.
Link to Original Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436545
I liked this painting because of the boy at its center, Manuel, dressed in a striking red suit, holding a magpie on a string while three cats watch him from the shadows. Even as a child's portrait, it felt tense, like something was about to happen. It looked like a moment frozen right before a story unfolds.
What I made: I turned Manuel into a toy doll, kept his red suit, his pose, his face, everything the same, just changed what he is. In my video, a father buys the doll from a toy shop and gives it to his little daughter, and they walk out together. I chose a girl instead of a boy on purpose, it felt like giving Manuel a second life completely outside the world he was painted into, away from the cats, the cage, the tension, just a toy being loved.
How I made it: I downloaded the painting image from The Met's open archive, then imported it into FLORA, connected the picture to a text prompt node, then connected both the picture and text prompt node to the video node I also made an element Doll, and selected the Seedance 2.5 model with a 30 second clip. I kept the workflow as simple as possible.
Why I made this: I wanted to take Manuel out of the painting and out of the museum, and give him an actual childhood, even 230+ years later. I think his portrait still holds so much presence that it deserves to live on, just now as something a child can actually hold and love, not just look at.
Instagram post link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc8SwEJMwP3/
Twitter(X) post link: https://x.com/AhmadSauleh/status/2096539462402466095?s=20
Awwwww so sweeet, ideaaa!!!
This is my 3rd and last submission, I have many Ideas so I combined them into one,
Inspired by:
1. Tip of a Pointer, Bayzantine 1080–1150 As cylindrical bullet seats
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466296
2. Watch pobably swiss, ca. 1815-20 As key charm
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/193359
3. i- Terracotta plate, Greek, South Italian, Campanian, Teano, ca 330-300 BCE
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248185
ii- Plate, ott and Brewer American, Retailer Bailey, Banks & Biddle American, ca 1884-90
Link to Art:
iii- Plate America, ca. 1800-20
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/5996
iv- Plate, Spanish, late 14th-early 15th century
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/468520
v- Plate, 1736-95
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/6448
As Ear Rings
What I built:
I made a video which shows the use of old Art as being used in modern daily life as different objects
Why I built:
I built this because I think the old Art can be used in modern day if we look it from new and different perspective, I wanted to give a different point of view to everyone for seeing the old Art differently
In short I used multiple old art works and I tried to show how they can be used in today's life
In all my three submission I focused on the Judging points specially, building the world around the art, and changing one thing about it, and making it feel realistic
Instagram Post Link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc84QrYNYrE/
Twitter(X) Post Link:
https://x.com/AhmadSauleh/status/2096623920396796398?s=20
How did you came up with this idea, It is really nice for using the old Art as new things such as Ear rings, seats, keychain
An Etruscan black-figure bowl reimagined as a 60,000-seat football stadium. The idea: the vessel was already a stadium — a deep bowl with a procession of animals running around it, made to be read in the round. It only needed scaling.
I kept the silhouette exactly (widest at 60% height, narrow footring, roof flaring past the belly) and made the undercut real with a raking diagrid over a recessed plinth.
The one rule was that the ornament had to be built, not printed: glazed terracotta and precast for the cream ground, anodised aluminium inlay for the animals, perforated Corten for the red wings, brushed bronze for the banding.
Inside, the same creatures are rebuilt as woven steel cages that glow under floodlight. The film is one unbroken 30-second move from the plaza, through the frieze, up to the aerial, down through the roof into a live match, and in to a single sphinx.
Flore Project Link: https://app.flora.ai/join-project/8cb7204e-68ac-45c4-a702-478c3a852f96
Met Art Link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/256846
#floramuseumchallenge
See how made this in Flora