Google has finally launched its stable version of [Google Art & Culture] As an art major who used to partake in digital archiving in Smithsonian Freer Gallery, this is more than welcome advance (yes, I would like to call this as an ‘advance’) in using Google’s networks and world-wide market influence. Although it’s not an obligation for companies like Google to invest in art and culture, this might give them back more than what they’ve invested in the project. It’s also true that science and art always meets at some point, although the two look so disparate and unrelevant at first sight, and even with their inherent (and unreconcilable) differences at critical points. In the end, both are potent AND responsible for expanding the horizon of thoughts of each human generation.
It’s also true that computer graphics could evolve with so much inputs and helps from visual artists, and the advance in computer graphics also assisted artists to produce better, unprecedented works in the end.
Improvements that can be made in museum: Based upon my experience of museums and galleries so far, most of the conventional ways that art pieces are displayed seem to be outdated, when we think about how technologies have come so far. Think about the stereotypical white walls of galleries and museums. Although this can help the visitors to be immersed into, thus can focus on only the piece of work they are looking at, with the assistance of the advanced science, museums can actually do better than this. Think about a gallery wall which is static and responsive. What if LED displays replace the current white walls so that it can spontaneously provide relevant information of the art works hung onto them? What if, using hypertext function of webs, users can find more about the art works that they are watching, by actively searching for the related information? Museums can evolve, again, into a better ‘academia’ than schools as they are right now, with the assistance of technologies- developments in hardware such as flatter, more flexible displays, combination of hardware and software as in the case of AR and VR, big data, cloud computing system, etc. What’s more, museums and galleries might be able to exhibit the products of their visitors on spot or in post ante way, but in more engaging way.
Or any suggestion for improvements ?