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Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

artsandculture.google.com

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Re: Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

#2

Post by digitalsushi »

As an 18 year old high school student, I was able to snag a free seat on a field trip to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, just a little trip to Boston from my hometown of Claremont, NH. In 1998, my high school had just lost its accreditation, I had just flunked pre-calculus for the second year in a row, and I had absolutely no direction in my life. Three months later I would be kicked out of college for a 0.6 first-semester GPA, to begin the very long, awkward journey of finding myself. This takes many more years before the first success.

But that trip to this museum, one included on this website as a virtual tour, planted a seed, deep down in my mind that would take years to spout. The museum is a Venetian palace, and at the center, draped by shadows that lurch outwards from receding hallways, lies a majestic courtyard, adorned with crenulation and dentils that mesmerize and steal the time from day. A trashy townie punk stood there aghast that beauty could render so closely, and knew there for maybe the first time that a world beyond home awaited.

I never got a chance to thank the man that let me sneak aboard that bus, but many times already I have felt the spirit of sharing to an outsider that access, and evermore will I continue for it is only during these moments that we can so easily take stock of what we've been.

Support the arts.

Re: Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

#4

Post by themodelplumber »

srhngpr wrote: post #3

This is awesome, thanks for sharing. What are some other similar resources to be able to explore the world virtually?

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/m.html

How about the world of radio waves? Type in 198, AM. There's a good documentary of Apollo 13 on the Beeb currently, 7:43 PM PT, 0243 UTC :-)

Re: Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

#6

Post by mark_l_watson »

Causality1 wrote: post #5

Is it strange that I would enjoy these far more if they were embedded in a walkable version of the museum running in a game engine? Like "virtually visit a museum" is a lot more appealing than "look at pictures of things that are in museums".

There are a lot of 360 style virtual reality museums and famous travel destinations that I enjoy in my Oculus Quest. I am going to send the linked URI to friends without VR gear, it is very good stuff.

Re: Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

#7

Post by longtermd »

I tried some of them. All of them have a horribly low UX and UI. That means they are 100% unusable. Please hire some Silicon Valley engineers and make SPEED a feature. As it's now', it is pretty much totally worthless. I'm sorry to say so. Take it as real feedback. I tried it once, horribly slow, I'll never go back.

This is a good way to "burn through" a huge audience, which will remember you as a "slow, hard, and unusable service", and never come back. It won't matter then how hard you try to push or market.

Re: Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

#8

Post by phsource »

longtermd wrote: post #7

I tried some of them. All of them have a horribly low UX and UI. That means they are 100% unusable. Please hire some Silicon Valley engineers and make SPEED a feature. As it's now', it is pretty much totally worthless. I'm sorry to say so. Take it as real feedback. I tried it once, horribly slow, I'll never go back. This is a good way to "burn through" a huge audience, which will remember you as a "slow, hard, and un…

I'm a bit confused: the featured link here seems to be made by Google, and seems pretty performant in Firefox on a 6-year-old Macbook (albeit with a good Internet connection). Were you thinking of other links that had been shared before?

Re: Free virtual tours of 2,500 museums around the world

#10

Post by xnx »

Causality1 wrote: post #5

Is it strange that I would enjoy these far more if they were embedded in a walkable version of the museum running in a game engine? Like "virtually visit a museum" is a lot more appealing than "look at pictures of things that are in museums".

I think this is what you're looking for (though you'll need to find some discontinued hardware to run it I think): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr....
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