The Google Art Project is Google’s first venture into the world of art. The concept of the project is deceptively simple: to provide free online access to some of the world’s greatest galleries and works of art. This project was logical, and its creation inevitable, following the success of Google Books.
At the moment, there are seventeen museums around the world participating in the project, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery in London.
The Google Art Project, as the title suggests, is still very much a work in progress. Before attempting to break down and analyze the Google Art Project one should bare in mind that the project is and isn’t. It most certainly is not a replacement for the in-person gallery experience. The site itself follows Google’s tradition of simplicity and easy use. Google Street View technology, the viewer can stroll virtually through the most famous galleries in the world. If a certain work of art becomes of interest, then one can examine it individually, with the option of zooming in to observe the most minuscule details. The only restrictions on viewing the artwork are the copyright laws, which determine where the paintings can be closely examined, seen only from afar, or, in many cases, blurred-out completely.
On average, there are seven billion pixels per image, which makes the creation of strikingly realistic digital copies of paintings possible. These images are nothing like the pictures found in an online image search; they convey not only the colour, but the texture. Yet no matter how high the quality of the image, the artwork can only be as big as one’s computer screen – a physical limitation that will certainly dull the impact of any work of art. The real difficulty in trying to sift through the good and bad aspects of the Google Art Project is that they often overlap; while the project allows the art-lover to gallery-hop from one country to the next, it simultaneously overwhelms the viewer. A visit to a real gallery requires a leisurely pace — one has to walk from one painting to the next and take time to digest the artwork. Having the ability to see a large amount of art, separated only by a click of a button, can in fact do a disservice to the individual pieces.
One of the less obvious advantages of this project, but perhaps the most groundbreaking, is that it makes the artwork accessble. Unlike books or music, visual art is a medium that can only be experienced in (excluding, of course, the cases of private collections). One can listen to Mozart at home or read Shakespeare from the comfort of one’s bed, but unless one is willing to engage in highly illegal activities, access to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus at home has always remained out of reach. Google does not bring the actual Birth of Venus to your home, but it comes incredibly close to doing so. If anything, it serves to whet one’s appetite.
Not everyone has the ability to travel across the globe to see great art. The Google Art Project has the potential to open up the art world to a whole new audience. Does the virtual fall short of the actual gallery experience? Of course it does. A Google Street View-like stroll through the Palace of Versailles is no substitute for the real thing. The flaws of this experience, however, should not serve as a deterrent to exploration of the site, but only as a simple caution against conflating the experiences of seeing art in-person, and online. The Google Art Project has the potential to educate, and enlighten and therefore should not be rejected for its shortcomings. It would be pretentious to do so.
