Google Unveils Tilt Brush and Turns Brooklyn Party Goers into Virtual Artists

May 2024 · 2 minute read

At the third annual Village Fête, a fundraiser for artist Dustin Yellin’s collaboration center Pioneer Works in Redhook, Brooklyn, attendees were treated to much more than the usual studio tours and silent art auction.

Guests such as Alicia Keys (pictured below with Yellin), Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Desi on Girls), and an expectant Liv Tyler were given the chance to try their hands at Google’s new 3-D painting technology, Tilt Brush, at Sunday's event.

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Yellin, who is known for creating collage-like sculptures of found objects suspended in layers of glass, was a natural choice for testing out this pioneering technology. “I actually care less about people seeing what I did and more about getting to experience it for themselves,” Yellin told The New York Times of the installation.

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After viewing Yellin’s first Tilt Brush creation (which resembled a sort of wobbling tribal warrior) attendees were invited to slip into a dark room and try on headset and the video game–like paint controller themselves.

Angela Pham/BFA/REX/Shutterstock

No one seemed to fear the thought of waving around their arms around blindly while Brooklyn’s trendiest, pre–Met Ball crowd looked on: In fact, the wait for a five-minute session with Tilt Brush was more than two hours. “That was the best thing ever!” exclaimed one high-heeled guest while stumbling back into the light.

Visitors to Pioneer Works, which is open and free to the public Wednesday to Sunday afternoons, will be able to become virtual Picassos themselves: The Tilt Brush technology will remain on display through summer. Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, N.Y., pioneerworks.org.

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