Friday, February 04, 2011
Everybody’s talking about Google Art Project
Technology in the Arts: "Is Google Art Project setting a new standard for the online art world, or is it all just hype? Since its release a few days ago, the public has taken its first stroll through the project’s virtual galleries and in general, first impressions have been enthusiastic.
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8 comments:
I think this is a great idea. Art is meant to be viewed by the public but most people don't go to museums all over the world to see famous art. This makes the art world much more accessible. I do think that sometimes something is lost in viewing paintings online, but it's a great way to see something you can't actually see in person. I also don't believe this will stop people from going to museums, so it's definitely a positive addition to google.
I couldn't agree with the author more about this. I, too, hope it lasts more than the requisite fifteen minutes but even if it doesn't last very long, even if it falls into obscurity, if even ONE person uses it and is inspired to actually GO to the MoMA or to the Smithsonian then I feel it's totally worth it. I grew up in Washington, DC where just about every museum in existence is free admission; but I can understand other museums' hesitation to include larger portions of their collections online for anyone to just LOOK AT. I don't think something like this will kill off patrons actually going to museums any more than piracy has killed people paying for movies. I hope many of them will ease off a little on that hesitation as this hopefully becomes apparent in the future.
I agree with both Sophie and Jacob, this is awesome. I hope that it does inspire people to go see more, as opposed to encouraging people's laziness. think one of the coolest things about this, though, is the ability to see so many of these works up close. So much can be learned about any artistic style when the details are observed. When you go into a museum, you can't just walk right up to the Starry Night painting and observe it so closely. The fact that Google Art Project allows for this is so great. I hope that the Google Art Project becomes not just a tool for artists, but also a widely-promoted educational and arts promotional tool.
While the Good Art Project should in no way replace going to see the real thing, this project provides a wonderful way to spread art and a very practical planning device. I recently went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and there was not enough time in the day to see all the wonderful pieces of artwork. They have a great number of classic artworks, and it seems to me that by planning out where everything is using the Art Project could make seeing everything possible. I'll be sure to try this out the next time I go to a museum, and I hope everyone else is encouraged to go as well!
Accessibility is frequently underrated in the arts community and the internet is the beginning of a communication tool to break that barrier. I grew up in the opposite situation as Jacob! because while he had access to museums for free, I was on an island in the pacific and had very limited exposure to art and museums of the like so this is a dream come true for someone like myself who can count on one hand how many art museums I have been in over the years(3 of them were in pittsburgh...) Reading/viewing about these infamous works of art via textbook is a very different experience than actually standing in front of the painting and being able to examine it, and I'm glad Google has the wish to share that with everyone.
I hope that this doesn't just disappear because I think that it is a great tool, and also I hope that it doesn't stand in for actually going to a museum. Although I feel like it never could. There is no way that you can really see a painting on a screen as well as you can in a museum. Also how could you have instillations like the silver pillow balloons in the Andy Warhol museum that is a about interaction and not about sight. Also you could never gauge how big or small something is on a screen. Work that is huge or tiny is always the work at museums that I find the most intriguing because that artist worked in a medium that was different from the norm. Also they played with scale in such a different way. All in all there really is no substitute for the real thing, but I think that it can be useful as an art student or to give people who would normally not be able to see art to get to have an inside look.
I think that the Google Art Project is an amazing idea. Though it is flawed and very limited, it brings us very high quality images of paintings that we may never have the chance to see in person or at a decent size on the computer. It's navigational features are interesting even if they're troublesome, and being able to see what the museums look like is great.
I hope that they Google Art Project expands its collection very soon. This is an amazing project.
Although I understand the opposing perspectives on the project concerning it's disconnect with the personal experience of live art, I think that this project, much like most of what Google creates, is genius and will spark a fire of educational outreach. Naturally, I prefer going to a museum, but unfortunately there's never much time, or money, to satisfy that interest. However, I find the most powerful part of this project to be the zoom control, which is an element that museum art cannot fulfill. The example of Van Gogh's work os a wonderful choice to display that and I cannot wait to test it out on other works that use other mediums.
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