Google Art Project

Have you seen the latest art project Googlehas started? Google has taken on a fascinating art project that allows for people to virtually visit some of the most famous museums in the world. Now you don’t have to visit New York to go to the MoMA, you can tour it online!

Some of the museum’s paintings and sculptures have been selected for close-ups, meaning you can zoom into the photo of the painting to see the most minute details from the brushstrokes to the cracks of the oil on canvas. Have a look around a world-class museum!

What do you think about this? Do you think this detracts from the real life museum experience or does it allow art lovers, and those who otherwise wouldn’t visit the museum, to visit some of the world’s best museums without hurting their pocketbooks?

There are many cultural advantages to this project such as the ability to make art more accessible to a wider audience but there are also some drawbacks. Not all of the works of art can be zoomed in, meaning not all of them can be viewed in high resolution, so in some ways you can’t really select which pieces you get to see up close from a collection, they have already been selected for you.

Vocabulary

Tour – (verb) to make a journey or trip through an area or place : to make a tour of (something) [+ obj].

Close-ups – a photograph or movie picture taken very close to an object or person.

Minute – (adj.) very small; tiny.

Detract – (verb) to reduce the strength, value, or importance of (something).

Pocketbook – (noun) the amount of money that someone has available to spend : someone’s ability to pay for things.

Drawbacks – (noun) something that causes problems; disadvantage