Eleven years ago someone at Google thought, rightly, that the principle on which it was based Street View – visiting any place comfortably from the sofa – could have been successfully applied to museums around the world and their works.
What started out as a 20 percent Google project, and that at the time it was called Art Project, surprisingly managed to overcome the resistance of museums – initially frightened by the idea of digitizing their works – and contributed to spreading art and culture in an extraordinarily new way, with immersive 360 ° tours that were practically non-existent a decade ago. Because, even if they wanted to, no one was in possession of the technologies to make them.
Culture
Digital art is now a museum
by Riccardo Luna
17 Maggio 2022
The technology that makes art and places of cultural interest accessible to all, free of charge, has become much more than a social and democratic tool in recent years. The pandemic has hit Google Arts & Culture of a new responsibility: to allow you to enjoy works of art even in the darkest moments of the lockdown. Then came the war. And even in this case the Mountain View branch of the company who engages in art does its part: who until a few months ago consulted the digitized collections of some Ukrainian museums, could never have imagined that those works would run the serious risk of being lost, stolen or destroyed. In short, to survive only online.
But the task of Google, and of all the companies that today are able to replicate a work in every detail, is not limited to preservation and accessibility. This is demonstrated by the new project that Arts & Culture he created in Italy, in Milan, together with the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, the historic body responsible for the conservation and enhancement of the Gothic Cathedral.
In short, Google has officially entered the Cathedral: it has photographed 2000 square meters of the Cathedral, 26 rooms of its rooms, reaching its crypt. And then the cameras went up to the Madonnina, to shoot at 360 ° with a view of the spiers and roofs of the city. In all 15 Street View paths were created inside the building. And last but not least, more than 50 extraordinary stained glass windows have been digitized.
The stained glass windows that light up the naves of the Duomo with colors are perhaps the most fascinating element of this project, as Google itself underlines with a video that celebrates the “remixed” Cathedral: a ‘young’ way, in step with the times. , to say that it can be visited in a completely new way. Some of these are located tens of meters high. Visitors manage to capture the overall beauty of the decorations that embellish the gothic windows. But they can’t appreciate the details. At least until today.
Google enters the Milan Cathedral: a new look at the Cathedral
For over two years, the Cantiere Duomo of the Veneranda Fabbrica has collaborated with the technicians of Google Arts & Culture, leading their cameras to the most inaccessible windows. Digital replicas will also be useful to art historians: to have confirmation of their studies or, why not, to discover unexpected elements. Like those who, in the past, came across the small word “Cerca Trova” well ‘hidden’ in the Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana by Giorgio Vasari, which is located in the Salone dei Cinquecento of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. If he had Google’s technology at his disposal, perhaps he would have discovered it earlier.
And it must be taken into account that any discoveries could arise from the navigation of any user. As it happens on Google Earth and Google Mapswhich often thanks to the curiosity of users bring to light places or symbols on the ground that perhaps no one had seen before.
For the Duomo, as Monsignor Gianantonio Borgonovo tells us, the images of the windows are central. So much so that one of the cathedral’s stained glass windows, number 25, is dedicated to San Giovanni Damasceno “who is the representative of the iconoclasm that arose in the East and who has strongly spread the use of the image. The Cathedral wanted to remember the one who defended the use of images to illustrate the mystery of salvation in cultural history ”.
“This project does not only provide images and details – explained Amit Sood, the head of Google Arts & Culture – but also experts who tell what you are observing, Within 5 minutes you can listen to a lesson which allows you to go into hidden and secret details. As a tourist, years ago, I admired the Duomo. But I didn’t get to go that deep. I did not know, for example, that the Duomo houses a collection of contemporary art ”.
“What I discovered, among other things, is an interesting story that links cooking to art – said Sood -. I love cooking and I use saffron and I discovered that the inspiration for the famous saffron risotto comes from the windows of the Duomo. How beautiful this connection between food and art “.
“We are engineers, we have the technology, but we do not know the history – added Sood thanking the Duomo staff who collaborated on the project -. We would not have been able to tell the story of the Duomo if it had not been explained to us by the people who worked with us here in Milan “.
Amit Sood, in the press conference that took place inside the Milan Cathedral, also illustrated how the section of Google Arts & Culture dedicated to the history of the Cathedral is full of games, even puzzles for the little ones. “You can also learn by playing,” says Sood. But this is also a way for Google to find a point of contact with the very young who are now attracted to multiple platforms, numerous social networks.