One of the longstanding promises of the Internet–of the last century’s worth of technology, really–is that the cultural heritage of the world will be accessible to everyone in their homes. Today, the global museum has taken another step forward with Google Art Project. An ingenious application of Google’s Street View and Picasa tools, it allows web browsers to wander the halls of 17 museums around the world (New York City’s MoMA, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and others).
Some particularly significant artworks in each of the museums (about a thousand total, although more will apparently follow) can be viewed straight-on, in ultra-high resolution. In some cases, that just means a very tight close-up view; others are so detailed that you can make out the grain of individual brushstrokes–a closer view than you’d ever be able to get in person. There’s also explanatory text for the individually viewable works.
via “Google Art Project” Launches: Why It’s Amazing – Techland – TIME.com
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
