Google recently has launched Street View for Museums and started the launch of the Art Project http://www.googleartproject.com/museums/hermitage, which features 17 art museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York, The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Tate Britain and The National Gallery in London, Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Via the Art Project, users can navigate through these museums and check out more than 1,000 works of art by more than 400 artists. From the website, you got to use the zoom tool and admire each art piece as long as you wish. Google also created an annotation feature that lets you toggle between the museum’s interior and particular works of art. Artwork is also supplemented with info panels and YouTube videos.
In addition, you can create your own artwork collection, saving views of any piece. You can comment on these pieces and even share the selected works with friends. We can see tools like these being invaluable for students.
This idea allows everyone around the world the experience an environment and view the object without physically being there. However, doesn't it also mean that the sense of "exclusivity" has lost? You get to see something without paying a flight, traveling the world, paying the admission fee? This feature is fantastic for students like me, though.
Or is this a way for Google to show to the world that they have the technology and power to do things that no one else can? Also, like Google's Webex http://www.webex.com/, a tool for realtime virtual meeting everywhere (3-minute quick tour demo http://www.webex.com/quicktour/mc-enduser/?TrackID=1017644&hbxref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webex.com%2F&goid=quick_tour). It seems like we as a society is trending towards an environment where you are there and you are really not, but you can.
Imagine in the future, there are virtual showrooms of any category where viewers are allowed to enter in and with the help of some kind of sensory device, you are taken into this 3D environment where you can literally feel and touch the products the retailers are selling. -- This may be another daring way for marketers to promote their items to create the surreal experience.
Note: Some sources are collected from http://mashable.com/2011/02/01/google-art-project/
This is genius I love it, you go Google! This is almost even better than going to the museum because you don't have to deal with the crowd. When I went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa I was lucky to get even a couple meters close to it. Lets just hope the Internet Meter doesn't go through..
ReplyDeleteGoogle impressed me few years ago with Street View, I find it very interesting and they have done a very good job to cover most of the places in the world.
ReplyDeleteFor museums, I find it very interesting because it allows people who can't travel to have the opportunity to visit these museums. But it will never replace a real visit.. If we continue to have access to more and more stuff on Internet, even if it's good because everybody can have access, people are going to stay more and more at home.. lol
This idea is very intelligent! Google is actively covering all its bases in order to appeal to the most diverse group of customers possible. Although this idea provides an impressive virtual tour, I do not believe it is superior to the real experience. I have visited the Louvre as well and feel that the real life atmosphere adds to the experience as a whole.
ReplyDeleteGreat tool! espicially for students, but what do the art curators, artists and artist minded people think about this. Many of them love their exclusivity, many believe, that for art as such as the Mona Lisa you should travel, pay, line up and do all the gritty work to get the chance to look at it.
ReplyDeleteI personally love it, it gives anyone the chance to express, learn and see. for example people in Africa, urban America and Europe who can not afford to pay to see such beauty. First the forever impressive Street views, now this, what next?! GOOgle? what next?