Google Art Project: the real thing?

 This lunchtime, I took a trip around the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. I strolled through (selected) corridors as if I was the only person there, found old pictures I love, and new favourites by artists I never knew, peered at delicate brush strokes with dazzling clarity, and all without ever leaving my desk.

This is the proud boast of Google’s newest online programme – Google Art Project. With its triumphant release on 1 Feb 2011, the Google Art Project offers us a revolutionary experience in Gallery viewing. Following the same blueprint as their Google ‘Street View’ programme, 17 highly renowned fine art galleries from across the globe are open to our viewing pleasure, including London’s Tate Britain and National Gallery, the MoMA in New York, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Palace of Versailles.

My first look at the site was, to be sure, a fascinating and eye-opening experience. With their celebrated ‘gigapixel’ technology, one artwork in each institution is photographed in incredible high clarity, letting you zoom in to microscopic detail. This is a novel virtual experience to say the least, and will, I’m sure, prove to be an invaluable educational tool.

But all of this is only virtual.

Google say they hope their technology will open museums up “to a whole new set of people who might otherwise never get to see the real thing up close... it’s our first step toward making great art more accessible”. I am all for removing fine and classical art from its elitist shelf where it still seems to remain, and Google Art Project does a great job of this. What we need to remember, however, is that the real things are still there. My virtual trip to the Alte Nationalgalerie reminded me of when I first visited the Louvre (noticeably missing from the Art Project line-up, by the way). During my obligatory viewing of the Mona Lisa, a man with a video camera stuck to his face came up from the side, walked up to the protective-cased masterpiece, circled it and walked off again, all with his camera fixed solidly to his eye. He left that day without ever actually seeing the artwork with his own eyes.

Google Art Project as a progressive and revolutionary tool for education and accessibility in the modern art world – fine. But here’s hoping it won’t just turn us all into armchair art enthusiasts. I’ll close with the last word from Google, which I only hope proves true – that instead of one more step towards a Wall-E-like future for the human race where our every experience is mediated by a digital screen, Google Art Project really will “inspire you to visit the real thing”.