How times have rapidly changed since the days of using viewfinders like the one seen in our featured image! If you love viewing art and other culturally important works, but find you’re not always in the mood for travel or visiting an actual museum or gallery, then Google’s Arts and Culture app may offer the perfect compromise. With this amazingly popular app, you can visit some of the world’s most famous attractions and see some iconic works of art in glorious colour, all from the comfort of your own armchair.
Facundo Ratti
There is more to see in the world than anyone can experience in a lifetime, but thanks to Google, it’s now possible to see a bit more of it without ever leaving home. Google launched its Arts and Culture application for Android and iPhone mobile devices in 2016, and now your mobile device can be the gateway to the world’s most comprehensive museum, art gallery and cultural guide.
World famous museums and galleries
For instance, using the Arts and Culture app you can tour 17 of the world’s most famous art museums with Google Art Project. Featured museums include New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and the Tate Britain in London. More incredible is the fact that you can not only explore the museums but can also closely study high-resolution images of the works of art found in them.
Explore stories and learn from collections
The app also provides the opportunity to learn from a wide range of stories and collections that pull together fascinating information about cultures from both familiar and far-flung places. Learn about the history of shoes, the lives of famous artists, and some of the world’s most important cultural and social movements. There’s an incredible wealth of information available, with the only limit being the amount of time you have available for viewing.
See the world with virtual tours
Google’s advanced technology and painstaking attention to detail mean you can do more than look at art: by means of digital and virtual technology, you can wander amongst wonders of both the ancient and modern worlds.
For instance, with Google Street View you can view fascinating locations all over the world, from South America to the South Pacific.
- Let your eyes feast on the view from the mountain-top ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru.
- Walk through the Ho Family Garden in Yangzhou, China, one of the country’s most important and best-loved private gardens.
- Visit Endu Village on the island of Ambryn in Vanuatu, and have a look inside an active volcano.
- Explore colourful coral reefs underwater in a virtual scuba dive off the coast of Akajima Island, Japan.
And it gets better: with a virtual reality viewer such as Google Cardboard, you can add a little fun and use the Arts and Culture app to put yourself in the picture. Officially not available in the UK as yet, you can access the app’s selfie function using a VPN and pointing it to the US where you can play around and put your face within a work of art.
Whether you use virtual reality, street view, or use the app to explore art and culture from around the globe, there’s no doubt that the Arts and Culture app can expand your world or at the very least, enable you to experience cultural virtual reality to while away some time.
Get Google Arts and Culture:
Useful links:
Leave a Reply