More galleries join Google Art Project
Posted by Rachel Faulkner,
May 02, 2012
Last week the now infamous Google Art Project ran a major advertising campaign on YouTube.
Intrigued, we discovered that it recently broadened its remit to include a further 151 cultural institutions and now covers over 40 countries across the globe. That’s a lot of art! Even the Obamas have leapt onto Google's bandwagon and anyone, anywhere can now gawk at the chandelier clad rooms of the White House.
This is a project which is close to our hearts at Total Media, largely because we’re a bunch of art lovers but also because a considerable number of our clients are in the arts sector. Among the new recruits are London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and The Imperial War Museum, who have both allowed Google to get up close and personal with some of their most extraordinary treasures.
Google’s street view technology not only allows us to roam the corridors of these famous galleries and museums with the click of a mouse but it also lets us witness, in minute detail, the splendour of the Armada Jewel and the likes of Rosetti’s beautiful painting The Daydream. The experience is strangely addictive, particularly when its high resolution view allows you to see more than the naked eye does on a typical gallery visit. Whilst digital art usually consists of perfection, airbrushing and hyperreality, Google’s Art Project tool lets you see the tiny brush strokes, the imperfections and the subtleties which make art, well…art.
A project with pitfalls
It’s not all about marvelling at life’s masterpieces though. For Google, the project has brought with it the pesky issue of copyright law. Once upon a time original art works such as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus could only be seen by those lucky enough to visit the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Now, users can not only scrutinize it with a super human lens, they can also post it to a Facebook account, or pin it to their Pinterest boards, giving visibility to an infinite number of people. Some would say this is fantastic, only Google has allegedly shrugged off the responsibility of obtaining permissions from the people who own the rights to these works. As the New York Times recently reported, this has been left to the galleries themselves to obtain. For this reason, there are comparatively few artworks from the 20th century on display through the project. The permissions simply haven’t yet been given.
Another pitfall is that the virtual capturing of these galleries is done at a fixed time, and at this stage Google has no way of keep up to date with the changing exhibits which make major galleries so successful. This means a person who feels they have navigated the hallways of the Tate Britain has, in fact, only seen the Tate of a few months ago, meaning effect isn’t as authentic as it would seem. Not only that, but it bypasses the awe and wonder which is usually the product of a real-life gallery visit. As Claire Gould (curator at Helsinki Art Museum and sister of our very own Leila!) says, “Art should have a value as an original, or as an experience that you cannot get elsewhere. This tool diminishes the experience of art, since it flattens the works through its digitalization.”
Has Google got it right?
There is one silver lining to all this, and that is the Google Art Project is effectively bringing museums to the masses; anyone, regardless of economic or cultural capital, can gorge themselves on fine art from the comfort of their own home, office or classroom. They can even 'curate' their own personal gallery by collecting their favourite art works and sharing them with friends. For this, Google has to be applauded. We're all for reaching the masses here at Total Media, and we'd have to agree with anything which supports people subscribing to the arts. Will our clients see a rise in visitors to the galleries themselves though? We'll have to wait and see.
With just over 100 days left until our capital lifts the curtain on the 2012 Olympic Games, I thought it would be a good idea to see how people will be watching the Olympics this Summer. If recent stories (and personal experience) are anything to go by, one can assume that a lot won’t be watching the games in the actual stadiums. So where will people be watching the Olympics over the summer? In terms of location this could be any number of places, for instance my family will be hosting a few Olympic BBQ’s with the TV on in the background. Others will be heading off to some of the Olympic TV screens in London’s parks, to indulge in some of the atmosphere and some will join in with the hordes of crowds packing out bars to cheer Chris Hoy and company on to gold.
Regarding the actual channels that are covering the Olympics, your options are far more limited. The BBC will be covering the event day and night meaning rival broadcasters are preparing themselves for a dip in impacts during July. If Sue barker, Colin Jackson and Michael Johnson don’t cut it for you then you’ll have to switch over to British Eurosport (assuming you’ve paid for the correct Sky or Virgin package). Although this channel normally has a somewhat niche profile, come the Olympics it will be showing an all-encompassing selection of sports. The channel served me well during a summer in Barcelona where I unfortunately spilt Sangria down a customer whilst watching Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal. However as is the case with most sport on TV the success of the ratings will largely depend upon the performance of our nations athletes, which staggeringly could actually be pretty good. What is more, is that there will be no staying up until 2am or waking up at 6am to watch the live events, this year’s Olympics will be more or less catered to the UK public’s schedule meaning the allure of watching live action should inevitably lead to more ratings.
In terms of viewing the Olympics online the story is a somewhat similar one. The rights around any Olympic content being shown on the internet are impressively strict with the BBC and Eurosport websites being the only UK broadcasters able to show any content. The two websites along with BBC iPlayer will inevitably see significant rises in traffic over the period, however Sky Sports news will most likely see upsurges both in TV ratings and website traffic as its special Olympic report will cater for its loyal consumers seeking extra news. Much like last time around, expect to see clips uploaded onto YouTube, only to be taken down swiftly.
The rise of social media over the last 4 years will clearly add another aspect to the Olympic experience this year. The relationship between sport and social media was fantastically demonstrated in this year’s Super Bowl with the world record for the amount of tweets in a second broken twice. The first came in Madonna’s half time performance and the second at the very end of the match, my own prediction is that #ldn2012 and #ubolt will be breaking similar records. As we have seen before on TV, these social media buzzes will in turn create a drive back to live viewing as people do not wish to miss out on the real time experience of watching and discussing the Games over Social media platforms.
Needless to say if you don’t wish to watch any coverage of the Olympics and are hell bent on avoiding the ahem… “massive waste of tax payers’ money”…. then you will also need to avoid picking up any newspapers as they will have the Olympics story dominating both sides seeing as it’s not often that press has an advantage over TV and online these days.
This thread has been closed from taking new comments.