Arts and culture journey with Google

How often do you visit Google’s homepage?

What is the first thing that catches your attention?

Often you tend to just dive straight into the search bar, but have you played with other stuff surrounding it?

The simplest UI yet the most used piece of software you would come across would be Google’s Chrome browser.

Normally the stuff that excites me is the doodles. I used to note the changes everyday almost all day. They are quite interesting.

But my recent visit led to another beautiful exploration which I haven’t explored before. It amazed in a click, I went deep into it and felt like this would be the perfect time to share. Yah! This could help you with the quarantine boredom I guess.

It’s not completely new, it’s been around the world of the internet since 2011 yet many might have missed it.

This piece of writing is going to be fun with lots of screenshots and links. The reason I’m going to craft this way is this would be an amazing ride if you can feel it lively with visualizations and play with actual links side by side.

I have experimented the same way and guess this would work amazing for you as well.

Hey, but wait. I haven’t revealed what I’m talking about yet!

My usual night net surfing, something struck on board in the king’s palace — Mr/Ms. Google

He/She is very intelligent to give me the right stuff and I am always curious to consume anything from him/her.

Stare at this screenshot to begin our journey,

This notification tempted me to click through it to see what’s in it for me. Guess what, something magical.

Many of you might have heard of this already and some might not. But I am going to push you to visit this at the end of this article for sure.

Let’s move on,

What’s this?

A universe of arts and culture — curated by google.

Amazing right? Two questions could rise here immediately.

Why would a big giant like Google make such curation for arts and culture? What’s the relation? Hard to relate initially right?

Guess what, you will ask me who else could make such wonder other than Google at the end :)D

So let’s get few details on this in google’s version itself,

Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit initiative. We work with cultural institutions and artists around the world. Together, our mission is to preserve and bring the world’s art and culture online so it’s accessible to anyone, anywhere.

Now let’s approach it in a fun way,

How about visiting a tourist place — let’s say some cool dreamlands like Paris?

Of course, you can use various other tools from google like normal search, google images, maps,360 views, etc. But this one is someway phenomenal and more easily accessible.

Ok now let’s just float in imagination with these questions in mind. Excited,

How it would be if you can see a dinosaur close to you in a 3d view?

Like you can go closer to it, even inspect its giant body and I guess you will not get this closer look even if you managed to visit the actual museum in person.

That’s childish right? Ok, then how about this? How would it be if you can do the same with space shuttles? Like the one in movies but much closer traveling to every bit and byte.

Still, not that convinced, ok what if you can take a virtual holiday to Spain?

How would it be if you are allowed to see the iconic performances of such places and hear the rhythm exclusively?

Ok enough with the words. Let me share with you certain screenshots and leave you the direct links to experience.

Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Being a proud native of Tamil Nadu I was fond of temple structures just like every other fellow Tamilians over here. One of my friends constantly irritated me with stories of a particular temple’s marvels. My bad, she never took me over there till now. Not even once!

You may have such similar experiences with temples. Know how I made my virtual tour it.

It’s the great temple at Darasuram.

I can navigate closer, travel through steps virtually, and enjoy watching it visually in a 360 wide view free of cost.

Try now — https://artsandculture.google.com/story/mgVB_agwKwal-w

Lot’s of buzz over the Monalisa art.What if you can have a closer look at her eyes right from your screen…much closer as well

Did you find the eyes following you?

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/uQVR0_37LSyJYQ

Are you a cricket lover?

How it would be to visit the iconic cricket stadiums, walk through the racks, have a closer look at the dressing room?

Roam over the Sydney Cricket Ground — without cost

Street view — visit

You can even find amazing collections used by the great sportsmen like the one below,

Also, certain iconic rare pieces which you might not get a chance to see it closer in your lifetime

The cupboard in the away changing room of Sydney cricket ground.

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-cupboard-in-the-away-change-rooms/FQKSifQmwO2tIg

Combining millions of images from NASA and machine learning google made this possible — the visual universe

Explore now — https://artsexperiments.withgoogle.com/nasasvisualuniverse

You can travel to Paris, Spain, Italy, and many other places virtually. That’s cool. What super cool beyond that is you can explore their cultural heritage, learn about them with interactive 3D views,360 wide videos, and classic navigations controls.

A few highlights from them below,

You can listen to the rhythm of Spain here — https://artsandculture.google.com/project/sounds-of-spain

Explore the food map of Spain at — https://artsandculture.google.com/story/a-map-of-spanish-wine/DgICuDCg6BIyJQ

You can even find some cooking instructional videos of the places iconic dishes that you can try yourself watching them.

Any fans of dinos — this is for you

See how closer I am to them.

Can you see the space shuttle this close?

And movie fans,

See myself exploring the great LaLa land’s shooting spot,

I hope it’s not practically that easy to enter CERN like this,

But now you can — https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/a-stroll-through-cern-s-underground-spaces/zgLSY3sZpJX_Jw

Ok now let’s explore certain feature sets,

They let you search by timeline, explore places nearby, by profile, by themes, by collections, by artists, etc.

Also, they’ve introduced certain cool features in their app,

• Art selfie — install the app, take a selfie, and discover portraits from international museums.

• Art transfer — Art Transfer lets you transform your photos with inspiration from renowned artists from van Gogh to Kandinsky. Install the app and select the camera button to get started.

Finally, let’s finish our journey in style with this amazing master’s little bytes.

The man behind this amazing creation — Amit Sood, the Bombay-born director of Google’s Cultural Institute and Art Project.

You can find more info about him below,

Ted talk — watch now

TED profile — https://www.ted.com/speakers/amit_sood

There is a lot more to play around including information on more than 1400 museums expanding across more than 70 countries around the world. I’ll leave the rest to you,

Enjoy your journey with — https://artsandculture.google.com/