Tag Archives: Arts and Culture

A look at art in isolation captured on Pixel

Every industry has been affected by COVID-19, and the art world is no exception. Content creation requires a new level of imagination as many artists figure out how to approach their work within the confines of shelter in place.

Google Pixel’s Creator Labs program, an incubator for photographers and directors launched in Q4 2019, faced these new challenges as well. But the program’s simplicity actually aided the artists. Because Pixel was their primary tool, Creator Labs artists were able to explore ideas that came to them in quarantine, through an unfiltered lens. Given Pixel features like 4K video, Portrait Mode and HDR+, no complicated camera setups or highly produced shoots were necessary. 

Many flipped the camera on themselves, exploring the fluid dynamic between artist and muse. Myles Loftin, an artist based in New York who focuses on themes including identity and marginalized people in his work, dug deeper into exploring the importance of intimacy right now. “Taking self portraits has been one of the main things that has helped me pass the time during the last few months.  I feel like being indoors for so long I've been so much more in tune with myself and my body,” Myles says. “The Pixel makes it easy for me to set up really quickly and take self portraits whenever I want.”

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Photo by Myles Loftin

Another artist, who goes by the alias Glassface, took a look at the tension of our new virtual work lives.  “Nothing kills creativity like fear or depression. And often, nothing helps heal and reshape our mental health like creativity itself,” he explains. “Isolation is a tough pill to swallow, but often it breeds incredible work.”

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An excerpt from Glassface's work. 

Other artists featured in the project include Mayan Toledano, June Canedo, Joshua Kissi, Tim Kellner, Andrew Thomas Huang and Anthony Prince Leslie. While quarantine certainly changed how they worked, it also inspired them to investigate this era from a new lens. Anthony perhaps best articulated what the process was like: “Work during quarantine has really changed my perspective. I now remember what it feels like to be present—moving at a pace where there is no peripheral blur on my tunnel vision. As a director, I’m inspired by people and their connections to each other. ” 


You can discover more Pixel-made art, including the work of several Pixel Creator Labs artists, on our Pixel Instagram page

Finding a moment of calm with Yo-Yo-Ma

Evidence shows that culture can be calming, consoling and a source of comfort—for example studies at Harvard have shown creative activities like painting can have a positive effect on health and wellbeing. When lockdown began earlier this year, internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma wanted to share some of the music that was giving him comfort amid the anxiety. So he recorded a performance of Dvořák’s “Going Home” on his phone and shared it on social media with the hashtag #songsofcomfort. Soon, people around the world were chiming in with their own recordings of comforting songs. Others started sharing poetry and art.


Inspired by #songsofcomfort, Google Arts & Culture has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma on an online exhibition we’re calling Culture of Comfort. We asked 10 creative individuals to share the art or culture that comforts them. In a series of short films, explorer Erling Kagge speaks about tranquil landscapes, dancer Lil Buck explains the freedom he finds in creative movement, and curator Ana Elena Mallet discusses everyday objects. Each video features cello accompaniment selected and performed by Yo-Yo, all recorded at home during lockdown.
Culture of Comfort - seek comfort in nature with pipa soloist Wu Man

Wu Man who talks about finding comfort in nature and food.

As Yo-Yo put it, if we have culture, “we have the resilience and we have the possibility of rebuilding no matter what comes our way, because we are sustaining one another and together we're stronger.” Explore the online exhibit on Google Arts & Culture starting today.

Unravel the symbols of ancient Egypt

Today marks the anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the tool that first unlocked the mystery of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Ancient Egyptians used this writing system more than 4000 years ago to record their stories, but only a select group knew how to read and write them. 

But today, thanks to the new Google Arts & Culture tool Fabricius, anyone can interactively discover this fascinating language by means of three dedicated gateways: First, you can “Learn” about the language of ancient Egypt by following a short educational introduction in six easy steps. Secondly, Fabricius invites you to “Play” and translate your own words and messages into hieroglyphics ready to be shared with your friends and family.

And while Fabricius is your doorway to learn about and write in hieroglyphs, it thirdly offers new avenues for academic research, too. So far, experts had to dig manually through books upon books to translate and decipher the ancient language--a process that has remained virtually unchanged for over a century. Fabricius includes the first digital tool - that is also being released as open source to support further developments in the study of ancient languages - that decodes Egyptian hieroglyphs built on machine learning. Specifically, Google Cloud's AutoMLtechnology, AutoML Vision, was used to create a machine learning model that is able to make sense of what a hieroglyph is. In the past you would need a team of Data Scientists, a lot of code, and plenty of time, now AutoML Vision allows developers to easily train a machine to recognize all kinds of objects.

Available in English and Arabic, Fabricius is named after the father of epigraphy, the study of ancient inscriptions. We created it in collaboration with the Australian Center for Egyptology at Macquarie University, Psycle Interactive, Ubisoft and Egyptologists from around the globe. 

You can also explore more stories about the wonders of ancient Egypt, including the famous King Tutankhamun, the Pyramids of Giza and the Book of the Dead. And if you’re a teacher using Google Classroom, we’ve created resources on ancient Egypt for you to use, too.

Explore more stories about ancient Egypt by downloading the free Google Arts & Culture app, or visit the Google Arts & Culture website.

Put a cultural spin on game night

We are all curious beings at heart, and play is one of the best ways to learn. That is why we are introducing a few new ways for you to learn more about culture in fun and engaging ways. We are now adding a way to record videos with Art Projector, a tool that uses augmented reality to bring famous artworks to wherever you are. Tap the Camera icon to start recording your thoughts about these paintings, available now in the Google Arts & Culture Android app and coming soon on iOS.

While an Art Projector video is a way for everyone to become an artistic video curator, creative coders in the Google Arts & Culture Lab have come up with some other ideas to learn about arts, culture and history: by playing. The result is our new collection, “Play with Arts & Culture,” which offers games, puzzles and trivia drawn from the cultural treasures of hundreds of partner institutions. Try them on your computer via g.co/artgames, in the Google Arts & Culture Android app, and coming soon for iOS. 

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Puzzle Party

These collaborative jigsaw puzzles are made for family and friends to solve together (or for you to play solo). Dive into the rich detail of over 500 artworks, including Andy Warhol’s “Flowers,” Johannes Vermer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Amy Sherald’s “First Lady Michelle Obama” You can even choose between three different difficulty settings so everyone in the family can pitch in.

What came first.jpeg

What Came First?

What came first, the Statue of Liberty or the game of volleyball? The faster you select the correct answer, the higher your score. And if you want to dig a little deeper into the history, tap on an item to reveal more information.

Crossword puzzle

Cultural Crosswords 

Cultural Crosswords are a fun way to explore art, history, or themes such as African textiles or yoga postures. Tap on the boxes in the grid to reveal the clue and fill in your solution. Once you’ve got the right answer, you can click through and discover more about it on Google Arts & Culture.

Visual crosswords.jpeg

Visual Crosswords 

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So we riffed on the idea of a crossword puzzle to create Visual Crosswords, which you solve with images instead of letters. Figure out where each artwork fits in the grid: Is it Renaissance or Modern? Is it Van Gogh or Gaugin—or both? Drag each one to the correct box and progress through levels of difficulty.

Art coloring book.jpeg

Art Coloring Book

Van Gogh’s sunflowers might be yellow, but yours don’t have to be. Coloring has always been a favorite activity for children, but it’s becoming increasingly popular among adults looking for some mindful downtime. Exercise your talents and get inspired as you color famous artworks and even landmarks from Street View.

Start creating videos with Art Projector and playing with the Google Arts & Culture Android app—or coming soon on iOS. No matter if you're playing for fun or to learn something new, we hope “Play with Arts & Culture” will help you to further discover the amazing treasures our partners are making available to anyone online.

Put a cultural spin on game night

We are all curious beings at heart, and play is one of the best ways to learn. That is why we are introducing a few new ways for you to learn more about culture in fun and engaging ways. We are now adding a way to record videos with Art Projector, a tool that uses augmented reality to bring famous artworks to wherever you are. Tap the Camera icon to start recording your thoughts about these paintings, available now in the Google Arts & Culture Android app and coming soon on iOS.

While an Art Projector video is a way for everyone to become an artistic video curator, creative coders in the Google Arts & Culture Lab have come up with some other ideas to learn about arts, culture and history: by playing. The result is our new collection, “Play with Arts & Culture,” which offers games, puzzles and trivia drawn from the cultural treasures of hundreds of partner institutions. Try them on your computer via g.co/artgames, in the Google Arts & Culture Android app, and coming soon for iOS. 

Image of an unsolved puzzle .jpeg

Puzzle Party

These collaborative jigsaw puzzles are made for family and friends to solve together (or for you to play solo). Dive into the rich detail of over 500 artworks, including Andy Warhol’s “Flowers,” Johannes Vermer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Amy Sherald’s “First Lady Michelle Obama” You can even choose between three different difficulty settings so everyone in the family can pitch in.

What came first.jpeg

What Came First?

What came first, the Statue of Liberty or the game of volleyball? The faster you select the correct answer, the higher your score. And if you want to dig a little deeper into the history, tap on an item to reveal more information.

Crossword puzzle

Cultural Crosswords 

Cultural Crosswords are a fun way to explore art, history, or themes such as African textiles or yoga postures. Tap on the boxes in the grid to reveal the clue and fill in your solution. Once you’ve got the right answer, you can click through and discover more about it on Google Arts & Culture.

Visual crosswords.jpeg

Visual Crosswords 

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So we riffed on the idea of a crossword puzzle to create Visual Crosswords, which you solve with images instead of letters. Figure out where each artwork fits in the grid: Is it Renaissance or Modern? Is it Van Gogh or Gaugin—or both? Drag each one to the correct box and progress through levels of difficulty.

Art coloring book.jpeg

Art Coloring Book

Van Gogh’s sunflowers might be yellow, but yours don’t have to be. Coloring has always been a favorite activity for children, but it’s becoming increasingly popular among adults looking for some mindful downtime. Exercise your talents and get inspired as you color famous artworks and even landmarks from Street View.

Start creating videos with Art Projector and playing with the Google Arts & Culture Android app—or coming soon on iOS. No matter if you're playing for fun or to learn something new, we hope “Play with Arts & Culture” will help you to further discover the amazing treasures our partners are making available to anyone online.

Put a cultural spin on game night

We are all curious beings at heart, and play is one of the best ways to learn. That is why we are introducing a few new ways for you to learn more about culture in fun and engaging ways. We are now adding a way to record videos with Art Projector, a tool that uses augmented reality to bring famous artworks to wherever you are. Tap the Camera icon to start recording your thoughts about these paintings, available now in the Google Arts & Culture Android app and coming soon on iOS.

While an Art Projector video is a way for everyone to become an artistic video curator, creative coders in the Google Arts & Culture Lab have come up with some other ideas to learn about arts, culture and history: by playing. The result is our new collection, “Play with Arts & Culture,” which offers games, puzzles and trivia drawn from the cultural treasures of hundreds of partner institutions. Try them on your computer via g.co/artgames, in the Google Arts & Culture Android app, and coming soon for iOS. 

Image of an unsolved puzzle .jpeg

Puzzle Party

These collaborative jigsaw puzzles are made for family and friends to solve together (or for you to play solo). Dive into the rich detail of over 500 artworks, including Andy Warhol’s “Flowers,” Johannes Vermer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Amy Sherald’s “First Lady Michelle Obama” You can even choose between three different difficulty settings so everyone in the family can pitch in.

What came first.jpeg

What Came First?

What came first, the Statue of Liberty or the game of volleyball? The faster you select the correct answer, the higher your score. And if you want to dig a little deeper into the history, tap on an item to reveal more information.

Crossword puzzle

Cultural Crosswords 

Cultural Crosswords are a fun way to explore art, history, or themes such as African textiles or yoga postures. Tap on the boxes in the grid to reveal the clue and fill in your solution. Once you’ve got the right answer, you can click through and discover more about it on Google Arts & Culture.

Visual crosswords.jpeg

Visual Crosswords 

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So we riffed on the idea of a crossword puzzle to create Visual Crosswords, which you solve with images instead of letters. Figure out where each artwork fits in the grid: Is it Renaissance or Modern? Is it Van Gogh or Gaugin—or both? Drag each one to the correct box and progress through levels of difficulty.

Art coloring book.jpeg

Art Coloring Book

Van Gogh’s sunflowers might be yellow, but yours don’t have to be. Coloring has always been a favorite activity for children, but it’s becoming increasingly popular among adults looking for some mindful downtime. Exercise your talents and get inspired as you color famous artworks and even landmarks from Street View.

Start creating videos with Art Projector and playing with the Google Arts & Culture Android app—or coming soon on iOS. No matter if you're playing for fun or to learn something new, we hope “Play with Arts & Culture” will help you to further discover the amazing treasures our partners are making available to anyone online.

Explore 250 years of the Royal Academy of Arts

London’s Royal Academy of Arts(RA) has been championing artists and architects for more than 250 years, and—pandemic or not—isn’t stopping now. Since its founding in 1769, the RA’s graduates have influenced culture in the UK and abroad through art practice, education, research and more. During this time of closed doors, the RA is inviting art fans around the world to walk their halls, explore their collection and delve into their stories on Google Arts & Culture.

The RA collection is a varied and unconventional treasure trove of British art, with works from luminaries like J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Angelica Kauffman, through to contemporary masters like Lubaina Humid, Yinka Shonibare and Lynn Chadwick. Out of the 200+ worksnow available online, 20 have been captured in gigapixel resolution using our Art Camera technology, giving users the closest possible look at the details of each work.

At the ripe old age of 250, the RA underwent major renovations last year to extend and enhance their public offerings. The refreshed building was then captured from head to tail using Street View to enable art fans to explore the building and its galleries online for the first time.

Thirty stories illustrate the RA’s history, including a few lesser-known tales such as the feud between John Constable and JMW Turner. Self-guided tours of masterpieces mean you can explore at your own pace and virtually press your nose up to the canvas without raising a security guard’s ire. Take a walk through the building’s many halls, explore a sculpture installation, see the unusual props in the life drawing studio and walk from the grand Piccadilly entrance right through to the stately Burlington Gardens extension. 

As Axel Rüger, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy, says, “Especially in times of crisis, art galleries and museums should be places of community that provide inspiration, escape, solace, fun and consolation. The Royal Academy of Arts has existed to do that since 1768. At a time when our doors are sadly closed, we are delighted to continue that cultural exchange online, through Google Arts & Culture.”

Visit g.co/MeetTheRA to explore, or download the free Google Arts & Culture app for iOS or Android.

Explore 250 years of the Royal Academy of Arts

London’s Royal Academy of Arts(RA) has been championing artists and architects for more than 250 years, and—pandemic or not—isn’t stopping now. Since its founding in 1769, the RA’s graduates have influenced culture in the UK and abroad through art practice, education, research and more. During this time of closed doors, the RA is inviting art fans around the world to walk their halls, explore their collection and delve into their stories on Google Arts & Culture.

The RA collection is a varied and unconventional treasure trove of British art, with works from luminaries like J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Angelica Kauffman, through to contemporary masters like Lubaina Humid, Yinka Shonibare and Lynn Chadwick. Out of the 200+ worksnow available online, 20 have been captured in gigapixel resolution using our Art Camera technology, giving users the closest possible look at the details of each work.

At the ripe old age of 250, the RA underwent major renovations last year to extend and enhance their public offerings. The refreshed building was then captured from head to tail using Street View to enable art fans to explore the building and its galleries online for the first time.

Thirty stories illustrate the RA’s history, including a few lesser-known tales such as the feud between John Constable and JMW Turner. Self-guided tours of masterpieces mean you can explore at your own pace and virtually press your nose up to the canvas without raising a security guard’s ire. Take a walk through the building’s many halls, explore a sculpture installation, see the unusual props in the life drawing studio and walk from the grand Piccadilly entrance right through to the stately Burlington Gardens extension. 

As Axel Rüger, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy, says, “Especially in times of crisis, art galleries and museums should be places of community that provide inspiration, escape, solace, fun and consolation. The Royal Academy of Arts has existed to do that since 1768. At a time when our doors are sadly closed, we are delighted to continue that cultural exchange online, through Google Arts & Culture.”

Visit g.co/MeetTheRA to explore, or download the free Google Arts & Culture app for iOS or Android.

Heartbeat of the Earth: artists explore climate data

Art has always been a medium to convey complex subjects and address challenges we face. For many of us, the term “climate data” conjures up images of complicated graphs and charts, but artists are explaining it through a new lens. Today, on World Environment Day, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Google Arts & Culture Lab residency program announce Heartbeat of the Earth, a series of experimental artworks inspired by climate data. 

Five artists—Fabian Oefner, Cristina Tarquini, Laurie Frick, Pekka Niittyvirta, Timo Aho—used key findings from a landmark UN report and data from scientific institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the World Meteorological Organization, to create four interactive pieces of art about our climate. They’ve addressed the topics of declining ocean life, food consumption, melting glaciers and rising sea levels.

Acidifying Ocean

Digital visual artist Cristina Tarquini invites you to dive into our acidifying oceans using data from NOAA. Witness the effects of rising CO2 levels on our ocean: coral bleaching, fish disappearing, shells dissolving, jellyfish populations booming and garbage overpopulating the sea.


What We Eat

Have you ever wondered about the carbon footprint of your food? One-fourth of global climate change is caused by food production—that’s even more than the damage caused by transportation—so data artist Laurie Frick has created “What We Eat.” The work  examines the impact of individual foods on the environment using hand-drawn data visualisations, color coded and sized by CO2 output. 


Coastline Paradox

Discover the predicted sea level rise—and the number of people likely to be displaced—in more than 200 different locations between the years 2000 and 2300.  Timo Aho & Pekka Niittyvirta’sCoastline Paradox” experiment, uses a map of the world and Google Street View to visualize the current and predicted global sea level rise.


Timelines 

The experimental photographer Fabian Oefner visualizes the shocking retreat of the Rhone and Trift glaciers in Switzerland over the last 140 years. In “Timelines,” Fabian traces their retreat for each year using digital coordinates by GLAMOS, a drone equipped with powerful LED lights, and long-exposure imagery of the drone’s flightpath.

We hope that Heartbeat of the Earth will help everyone learn more about the complex issues we’ll encounter due to a changing climate. If you want to keep exploring on World Environment Day, “Into the Deep” isan expedition of the Antarctic ocean, made in partnership with Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. We also have a new video series celebrating nature in art created in cooperation with BTHVN2020.  

Find out more on the free Google Arts & Culture app for iOS and Android on the web..

Stay “connected to culture” on International Museum Day

Culture is the glue that connects us, even when we can’t be together. Right now people around the world are learning, exploring and finding joy in unexpected places and things, and cultural organizations everywhere are responding with new ways of staying connected to audiences digitally.

Supporting cultural organizations online

To mark this year's rather unusual International Museum Day, together with the International Council of Museums, we’re supporting cultural organizations to continue their cultural programs online with our multi-language resource “Connected to Culture.” It has been inspiring and humbling to see creative cultural organizations from around the globe reimagining the way people interact with art and culture, and adapting to the virtual world. Together, they’re helping to keep our communities connected through shared, digitized cultural moments.

Launching new things to explore for everyone 

Also today, more than 80 museums from over 25 countries are sharing new collections and stories on Google Arts & Culture, joining over 2000 partners already onboard. Discover the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (China), Parsons School of Design (USA), Meiji Jingu Forest - Festival of Art (Japan), Patronato Ruta de la Amistad A.C (Mexico) or the Casa Buonarroti (Italy). Together, they contribute 250 new stories and over 10,000 artworks as well as virtual Street View tours to exciting places such as the sacred grounds of the Meiji Shrine in Japan.

Offering tools to teachers and parents

To support teachers, parents, and curious minds throughout this period of quarantine, we’ve launched new educational content—from the Family Fun on Google Arts & Culture hub, to lesson plans, and virtual field trips with digital skills lessons.

For many art lovers, culture vultures, creators and curators, the idea of spending International Museum Day at home may not be a familiar one but we hope these new additions to Google Arts & Culture will inspire you to explore and learn more about arts and culture, with the whole family while at home.