Google Art Project:
Street View penetrates museums Automatic translate

Google has launched a new project that allows any Internet user to take virtual tours of the halls of art galleries, enjoy high-quality images of great works of art, as well as create their own collections and store their favorite works in them. All of the above options of the new Art project will be available thanks to the well-known Street View technology.

According to experts at a presentation held on Tuesday in London’s Tate Britain, Google’s art project will enable a new level of preservation and transmission of cultural heritage to new generations.

“The new project may turn out to be a factor in changing the rules of the game,” said Julian Raby, a spokeswoman for the Fryer Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Recall that the Fryer art gallery is one of 17 famous galleries participating in the large-scale Google Art Project.

According to Nelson Mattos, Google’s vice president of development, Art Project is a great opportunity to touch the world of art for children from Latin America, India and Africa, who are unlikely to be lucky enough to see the masterpieces of world painting in the original.

“This is really a big step forward in bringing the masses to the treasures of world art,” said Nelson Mattos, adding that in the future Google plans to expand the list of museums and works of art.

Tate Britain Gallery Director Nicolas Serota
at the time of launching the Google Art Project website
Photo: REUTERS / Stefan Wermuth.

At the presentation, the vice president of development and project curators expressed their confidence that no virtual tour will replace the sensations of visiting a real museum, no matter how progressive and advanced modern technologies are.

“The Google team does not at all consider the virtual version as a full-fledged alternative to the museum, and does not believe that online tours will deprive people of their desire to visit cultural places. On the contrary, we hope that the exact opposite will happen, ”Nelson Mattos told Reuters.

Rabi believes that the Art Project will take a fresh look at the works of art presented on the world wide web.

“Until today, visiting the museum has often been fraught with information overload for art lovers. As for the Google Art Project, this service gives people the opportunity to experience emotional experiences with masterpieces of world painting, ”he says. “I see this project not so much as an alternative to visiting the museum, but as an incentive to come and see the great works of art with my own eyes.”

Amit Sood, a Google employee who participated in the development of the Art Project, explained how the company uses Street View technology to develop virtual tours.

The cameras are mounted on a special trolley that rolls through the halls of empty museums, taking off some exposures at an angle of 360 degrees. These panoramas of the premises are later joined together. Thus, it was possible to cover 385 halls, to which new ones will be gradually added.

In addition, each of the 17 museums selected one work of art that was captured using gigapixel photo technology. As a result, the image displayed on the computer monitor contains several billion pixels and makes visible details that are difficult to see with the naked eye.

So, due to approaching the torn string in the painting of Hans Holbein the Younger “Ambassadors”, which is located in the London National Gallery, the user will not only clearly examine the string itself, but also every brush stroke with which it is written.

“We are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the limited number of jobs,” said Tate Director Nicholas Serota.

On screen - Google Art Project website February 1, 2011 during a presentation at the Tate Britain Gallery. Google’s goal is to make the world’s best art galleries as accessible as possible through virtual tours. Any Internet user will be able to create a private collection of masterpieces and see them in the highest possible resolution.
Photo: REUTERS / Stefan Wermuth.

In addition to 17 works for gigapixel shooting, museums have offered more than a thousand works of art, allowing you to see them in detail, using the usual zoom when viewing.

Users can create their own collections, comment and exchange opinions, which will give an additional educational effect.

Mattos claims that the new Google project does not pursue any commercial benefits. However, they did not begin to voice the cost of the initiative.

Among the galleries displayed on the site are the Florentine Uffizi, the Palace of Versailles in France, the Kampa Museum in Prague, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

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