Google's art project goes live as of today, to visit the website Click Here
So far Google has photographed 17 of the great museums of the world which can be visited online virtually moving around the museum’s galleries, viewing more than a thousand artworks. Some works are viewable in high resolution, as well as information being available on the artist and the work.
Eeach institution has nominated a single piece as a “Gigapixel Artwork”, which Google has photographed “using super high resolution or ‘gigapixel’ photo capturing technology”. It produces an electronic image containing 7 billion pixels, allowing viewers to study the work in microscopic detail.
For those who cannot travel, I suppose it does give you some idea of what certain museums are like. However nothing is as good as viewing artworks in the flesh. Even that is not guaranteed in museums nowadays where there is the disturbing trend where people wander up to a masterpiece, view it through their camera/Iphone, take a snap and move on without actually looking at it directly with their eyes, only through a screen.
It drives me nuts when people do that. I would be intently studying the artwork in question, then get jostled by a tourist who would just nudge me over to take a photo and walk away. WTF?
ReplyDeleteI love that they are doing this project!
ReplyDeleteNothing like going to the real thing, but nice to get a peek.
great blog. im gonna start following you
ReplyDeleteIt's a fabulous idea - someone was just showing this site to me today. I kept thinking about learning about art in highschool from tiny pictures in textbooks - and how it was all so different once I got the opportunity to travel - but for those learning and who can't/won't get the opportunities to see things for real - it's a great initiative.
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