17 museums, 9 countries, 486 artists

2 thoughts on “17 museums, 9 countries, 486 artists”

• As I was looking out of the window today, watching the rain lash across the Pennines, I thought wouldn’t it be nice to spend an afternoon in Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York. So I did.
  At the click of a button I stepped straight into the fifth floor of MoMA into a slightly pixelated and bleached out view of an completely empty gallery space – certainly not my experience of visiting a very busy MoMA a few years ago, but at least I could see all the paintings. I moved through the gallery by clicking on navigational buttons that took me from one view to another. Like Google Map’s Street View these steps blur as you wait for the next image to load, not quite creating the smooth visual experience you would hope for, but you still get a sense of moving through a space.
  In front of the painting Le Rêve by Henri Rousseau, I was initially frustrated that I couldn’t line up the painting properly, but by clicking on a small + icon I went straight into a flat representation of the painting from which I could then zoom into a very detailed photograph. Alongside the painting were viewing notes, audio commentary and links to other information about the artist.
  Meanwhile back in the gallery I found myself slightly unnerved by being the only visitor and slightly distracted by the ability to view the layout of the gallery’s ceiling. After a bit of wandering about I did manage to find two blurred out gallery staff in a room full of forbidden paintings and sculptures and when I clicked on a button to visit the lower floor I realised there was loads of other blurred out people waiting for me. I followed the navigation to the front door and stepped straight into the hustle and bustle of West 53rd Street. A nice interactive connect.
  So does it work as a gallery experience? Well, I didn’t really get away from the rain but I did get to look at some paintings in detail and get a sense of how each of the rooms were themed. At the moment there is a limited range of galleries and artworks on offer but I imagine Google is planning on develop this project further, working with more institutions and representing more artworks. I suppose this then raises the issue over whether such projects start to undermine the actual experience of visiting a real gallery, especially with pressure on institutions to show a relationship between visitor numbers and funding.
  Right, I’m off to the State Hermitage Museum in Moscow for the first time, see you there.

  Reply

• Hi Christian,
  As you’ve noted, there are some limitations (and annoyances) to the ‘Google Gallery’ experience – I was thwarted in my attempt to create a ‘Collection’ by images just showing up as black in the navigation. But I think it’s a step in the right direction in terms of opening up galleries to people who otherwise would be physically unable to do so.
  Google had a similar project running a while ago which used the full 3D environment of Google Earth to create an entire museum (Madrid’s Prado). While it was far more impressive than this current incarnation in terms of visual quality, I imagine it will take a year or two for most people’s broadband connections to be able to run it at an adequate speed. To take a look at this project (and to see a video on how they take the high-res photographs), go to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/prado/

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