mymodernmet.com: Art history lovers already have several resources, like the Europeana database and Google Arts & Culture Institute, where it's possible to view incredible art from multiple collections. And it's possible to focus in and see masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art or Guggenheim, but most of these archives simply present the artwork as you'd see them if you went to the museum. What if you want to dig deeper?
3 comments:
I love what Pharos is going to do with art. I think this might possibly change museums as we know it. Generally, whenever I go to a museum the art is split up into time period related art and just a bunch of it in a room and then you can walk down a hall way and see another period. The art all has short descriptions and information but you can’t just compare it and what is being shown is the more popular work for lack of a better word. Museums generally have many other things hidden in them but require special permission as the article comments. Pharos, in trying to bring that archive forward as well as be able to show a time line through art; it’s just phenomenal. That sounds amazing and it is going to all be so much more easily accessible. This kind of online source would have been really helpful to me back in high school but I can’t imagine how helpful this will be to art historians or any other interested people.
I agree with Nicolaus: this database looks like it will change the world of museum art. At the tip of your fingers, you can search through almost a 100,000 photos that are currently uploaded to Pharos and be able to root through their history as their housing museum knows it. The timeline of restorations is something one can rarely, if ever seen in an art museum now, and now opening that knowledge up to the public domain definitely changes the game for art historian and schools. The database, as of now, holds much less than the article title boasts its goal is, and I wonder if the site will extend to hold photos of modern art as well. Will the database always be open to free use, or will it have to be subscribed to like so many other databases? Will museums be hesitant in releasing photos of their works in fear that visiting the actual museum will go out of style? Will the online world take the place of museums? I'm interested in seeing what Pharos becomes what is promises to be, because it seems to be a ground breaking and wonderful resource, but will it continue to be that as is it grows?
This is a really fascinating movement for the world of art. The amount of exposure to different artists, styles, and collections that we will all have is a really exciting possibility. I like the idea of the amount of background information and history that will be available alongside the images, so you could really understand the piece and the artist without having to get lost too far into peripheral research and articles. It is also really interesting that there will be easy ways to access images that are connected to the one you are viewing all in the same page. All of that being said, I do not at all think that this is comparable to going to a museum and physically seeing the art pieces. I think that there is something truly special about viewing a piece of art in all of its grandeur before you. Seeing a painting that was originally 8ft tall on your 13” laptop screen is really not the same feeling, just similar information. It will be a successful research tool, and I look forward to exploring it further.
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