{"id":1004,"date":"2022-03-04T18:02:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T23:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/62-830\/s2022\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2022-03-04T18:02:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T23:02:19","slug":"exploring-the-world-of-google-arts-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.ideate.cmu.edu\/62-830\/s2022\/?p=1004","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the World of Google Arts and Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of artistic and cultural institutions that offer virtual experiences. The appeal of these alternatives to in-person attendance seems to have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>. Google Arts and Culture provides a mass landing space for those looking to both experience culture in a virtual setting, and engage with different forms of art in a different way. This post looks at the history of the website\/app, its noteworthy features, and the implications of this platform\u2014and others like it\u2014for artistic and cultural organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Google Arts and Culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched by Google in 2011 as a nonprofit initiative<\/a>, Google Arts and Culture was created with the purpose of increasing the accessibility<\/a> of art and culture. The platform describes itself as a new way of experiencing art and culture<\/a>, with the main attraction being that the user is able to access various types of art regardless of the their location, or the location of an institution. The platform currently has over 2,000 global partners<\/a> and over 100,000 works of art<\/a>, giving museums, performing arts venues, and historical landmarks the ability to showcase various exhibitions, photographs and information about their institutions. Some prominent institutions include The British Museum, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Sydney Opera House. When an institution becomes a partner, they obtain access to tools<\/a> that allow for paintings and other materials to be digitized and uploaded to the platform. The Art Camera<\/a>, which performs the digitization, is a high-resolution camera that allows for users of the platform to zoom in and observe up-close details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An enhanced picture of the painting Fruto No. 1<\/a> by Soldedad Bertr\u00e1n (1978)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The full painting of the enhanced image above. This painting is on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogot\u00e1 in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another digitization feature allows institutions to add virtual, 360 degree tours to their pages, similar to a view you would see in Google Maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Street View feature allows the user to experience the outside view of the Sydney Opera House<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AI, AR, and Experiments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building off a substantial number of partnerships, Google Arts and Culture utilizes technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)\/machine learning and augmented reality (AR) for a variety of experiments that allow the user to establish personal connections to art, primarily by participating in the creative and art-making processes themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the platform\u2019s most prominent experiments is its selfie feature. Using the Google Arts and Culture app, users are able to use selfies<\/a> to see what piece of art they resemble. When the user uploads their photo, Google\u2019s software works to scan the selfie<\/a> and go through the variety of paintings in the databases for a potential match. Though created with good intentions, this experiment did not come without controversy. Many BIPOC individuals found that when they used the feature, their results did not come with the same depth as those of White individuals; the works of art that displayed people of color were already limited, and when they were matched, it was often with figures that displayed \u201cstereotypical tropes<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a unique instance of artificial intelligence reflecting human biases; Google as a larger enterprise\u2014along with the artificial intelligence industry in general\u2014has come under fire for its general lack of diversity<\/a>. The reproduction of racist stereotypes is not necessarily the algorithm\u2019s fault, but rather the fault of the people behind the algorithm. Some have also acknowledged how the platform\u2019s mishap specifically reflects the lack of diversity in the art world<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a less harmful way of establishing a personal connection to art, Google Arts and Culture introduced its Pet Portraits<\/a> feature, which is also utilizes AI. The process is similar to that of the selfie feature: the user takes a picture of their pet, and the algorithm attempts to find an artistic match. AI has also been used for the purposes of preservation. Along with one of their partners, the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria, they utilized machine learning<\/a> to restore the paintings of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt in color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Arts and Culture also makes prominent use of augmented reality (AR). The video below, uploaded by NASA and displayed on Google Arts and Culture\u2019s website, utilizes AR and allows the user to \u201cfly through a galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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