Google Art Project

Google just launched Google Art Project. It is a website that allows viewers to browse the galleries of 17 international art museums including the MoMA, Tate, MET, and several smaller more specialized museums. Eighteen months in the making, it allows you to navigate through the museums as if you are walking through them and includes 1,061 high resolution images of artwork. The resolution of these images are so high you are able to see each individual brushstroke and crack in a painting.


The project was started as one of Google's "20% Project", which allows employees to take a fifth of their time away from their regular job to come up with innovations.


While this is a great innovation, the project places emphasis on the power of big museums and makes visual art seem like something that is only 2D on a wall, like a painting. It is unfortunate because a lot of major museums are hosting some very interesting and forward-thinking performance art.