A few weeks ago (is it months now?) I commented on google digitizing museums, something I am still not 100% sold on, but today Flavor Wire led me to the digital Sistine Chapel. Aside from the music which I could not see away to turn off and love this. I have heard that actually seeing the chapel is hard due to other tourist so this offers you a completely unobstructed view.

A very busy day is ahead of me, need to get some research done for school, enjoy the super bowl with friends and most importantly celebrate my husbands birthday but all week I have been thinking about Google’s art project and wanted to post something about it.

I love when museums have there collections available online, it has been very useful for research papers to look at some of the images that are not published very often. Prior to visiting a few museums I have checked there collections and after returning I had looked up pieces I saw that I have wanted to know more about, so yes I am all into making more work available on the internet.

Being Google I am sure that all the navigation ticks will disappear in a while – I kept zooming in when I wanted to open the art works information and did not find the build your own gallery as easy as I had thought – but does this help grow appreciating of art? By placing these collections online do we have just another set of reproductions, another reason not to go see art in person, and museums to further restrict what they will lend to other institutions? Being able to zoom in to the details of the paint cracks and the brush strokes is incredible, but what about the color? Having seen some of the pieces online that I have seen in person I know I am being cheated. This is not a failure on Google’s part, more on the inconsistent aspects of technology and the time and lighting constraints I am sure the photography crew were faced with. So many of the Hermitage rooms appear to be washed out with light and even the crews could not get any closer to some of the areas than tourists. The room with the Peacock clock was taken at night and that effects the way the room appears, the close up is missing something that you get in looking at it in person as well. The piece becomes flat.

Maybe I am being elitest, and ignoring the fact that not everyone can physically go to St. Petersburg to see these things in person so this is a wonderful opportunity for them. If it does push people to go see these works, to want to understand more about artists who may be forgotten in history I am very excited for the project. I think I just need to wait to see what happens when the novelty wears off. Until then, check out the Palace of Versailles and watch the Google crew work in the hall of mirrors.

Anyway I am off to make coffee and french toast, the research the use of artists homes as museums.

Links:

www.googleartproject.com