google's 'arts & culture' app brings textures and history to the fingertips

google’s ‘arts & culture’ app brings textures and history to the fingertips
‘grainstacks at giverny; the evening sun’ by claude monet — oil on canvas — 1888/1889

just as the world’s precious artworks and monuments need a touch-up to look their best, the online home google built to host the world’s cultural treasures needs a lick of paint every now and then. the american technology company is now ready to pull off the dust sheets and introduce their ‘google arts & culture’ website and app, by the google cultural institute. the app allows users to explore anything from cats in art since 200 BCE to the color pink in surrealist sculptures, and everything in between.

‘cupola fresco in the state hall’ by daniel gran — 1726/1730

this technology will help people to discover works and artifacts from more than a thousand museums across 70 countries. allowing them to be immersed in cultural experiences across art, history and wonders of the world. with a digital reality viewer people can use the ‘google arts & culture’ app on both iOS and android devices to take a virtual tour of the street art scene in rome; step inside a creation by famous street artist, insa; or even travel 2,500 years back in time and look around the ancient greek temple of zeus.

video courtesy of google arts & culture

when visiting artworks in real life the app is there to help too— click ‘visit’ on a museum’s page to get opening times, find out what’s on that day and navigate there in one click. a novel feature called the ‘art recognizer’ is now available in london’s dulwich picture gallery, sydney’s art gallery of new south wales and the national gallery of art in washington DC. by pointing a phone’s camera to a painting on display the app will find all the information you want to know about the artwork. google are planning to roll this out to museums around the world—so stay tuned–for the interim there is the beta version for trialing.

‘lion dance of the new year’ by kitagawa utamaro — woodblock print; ink and color on paper — 19th century