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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

#11

Post by schoen »

digitalsushi wrote: post #2

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 fir…

That museum is amazing!

Also amazingly, today (!!) is the thirtieth anniversary of the unsolved theft of several masterpieces from its collection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museu...

It seems less likely every year, but I'm still hoping that those works will come home to the museum someday.

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

#12

Post by cbhl »

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".

No, I feel the same way. I went to the page for SFMOMA, and honestly I feel like the architecture of the building and the arrangement of the pieces in the space totally gives it the "museum feel". The pictures of the art struck me as if they could have come out of a textbook.

But exhibitions change all the time; it would be hard to keep a virtual walkable museum up-to-date with the real-world one. Plus it'd require more headcount, and more powerful gpus on the viewer side, and more edge cases wrt operating systems and browser combos to test.

I saw videos of a penguin walking around an aquarium in Chicago going around, and I found that gave me more of the feeling I was looking for.

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

#13

Post by 9test123456789 »

phsource wrote: post #8
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?

,m

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

#14

Post by mongol »

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".

It is better than that. Use their app and then you can put van Gogh in your living room (AR)

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/self-portrait-with-g...

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

#15

Post by VladimirGolovin »

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".

That would be fantastic on a 4K monitor, with the capability of zooming into the paintings and the original audioguide sound. And the soundscape please. And the ability to customize the sound of my own footsteps. I would absolutely enjoy that.

Some museums have amazing architecture and feel (The Foundation of Joan Miro in Barcelona is a great example) and having that feel represented by a proper walkable 3D environment would greatly enhance the experience.

I'm a bit concerned though that simulated museum visitors may break the immersion -- we haven't crossed the Uncanny Valley yet.

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

#16

Post by monadic2 »

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 don’t think home TVs have the capability to portray the lighting in a museum well.

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

#17

Post by RyanHamilton »

digitalsushi wrote: post #2

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 fir…

Thanks for sharing that story.

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

#19

Post by jonathanstrange »

I have sent a suggestion to Google to combine this with Google Hangout Meet, so quarantined friends can see and talk to each other while watching the images. I also suggested to split virtual visitors into random tourist groups, so if you visit the virtual museum alone you can be joined by others if you want to... and they should add virtual tours if they don't have them yet, where a real museum guide joins the group and gives a tour.

I hope they read my suggestion and can implement these features.

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

#20

Post by andy_wrote »

Since last Friday I've been making my Zoom virtual background a daily rotation of artwork. It's been a fun and educational experience for me (I'm no art expert, just a casual fan of museums) and I think my friends and co-workers have enjoyed it. When you're mostly stuck at home all day it's nice to have a daily "new" to look forward to.

I've been recording my choices and when this is over I'll have a little "Zoom Museum" as a kind of artistic memorial of the pandemic.

This link is a great source for new art, so thank you OP!

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