Website Shout Out: Google Art Project

I’ve got my problems with Google, namely their ever-growing size, their constant compilation of personal data, their aggressive tax avoidance policies, their sketchy “Street View” activities and their cozy relationship with the NSA and other governmental agencies. But Google is not a complete monster. Every once in a while Google uses their powerful forces – technological, economic and otherwise – to create something on the web that is so smart, so worth celebrating, that even I have to stop drinking “Hater-ade” long enough to say it’s a game changer.  In this case Google has changed the very way we explore some of the world’s greatest artworks and museums with their recently launched Art Project website.

Essentially, Google Art Project is a Google Street View of the inside of 17 first-class museums from around the world. Google photographed some of the world’s most iconic artworks – everything from Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch” to religious art of all kinds and even some Greek and Roman sculpture – with such a high resolution that you can zoom into each piece until you can see every minute detail, brush stroke and paint crack. Each museum selected one piece of artwork as their featured piece that was then photographed at 7 billion pixels for maximum quality. You also have the option of selecting your favorite artworks and adding them to your own collection so you can view them over and over again without spending the money and time required to visit each location around the globe.

Bottom-line, if you’re at all like me – a poor schmuck from the Midwest who is afraid of flying and doesn’t like big crowds but loves art – this is like a Google Godsend. I only hope they continue to update the project with more museums and even more styles of artwork.

detail of Bottacelli’s “The Birth of Venus”

Start exploring Google Art Project.

Need help? Check out Google’s visitor guide here.

I would highly suggest starting with the MoMA (NY), The Met (NY), The Tate (London), Freer Gallery of Art (DC), The National Gallery (London), Uffizi Gallery (Florence) and Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam).

Website Shout Out: Films for Action

After twelve months in development, the new Films for Action website has gone live. Films for Action is a non-profit website that works both on an international and local level to empower citizens with the information they need to create a more just, sustainable and democratic society. The website features over 500 of the best socially-conscious documentaries and videos that can be viewed for free online. While City Chapters work to screen films locally and hold events that provide an information and resource network to help reduce its city’s dependence on corporate media.

Learn more about the site’s new capabilities here

Website Shout Out: Letters of Note

Slowly the art of letter writing is dying out, actually some might say it’s already dead. But thanks to the website Letters of Note, this pre-digital literary communication has once again come to life. Through the gathering of “fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes and memos” from some of biggest cultural figures of the past, Letters of Note is an internet depository of the highest order. From Kafka’s correspondence with his father to Kerouac’s attempt at kissing Marlon Brando’s ass so he would film a version of On The Road, this is an equally entertaining site for anyone from the hardcore history buff to the everyday internet voyeur.

For me, the best letter I’ve read so far is written by Bob Dylan in 1972. After the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under Nixon began deportation proceedings against John Lennon and Yoko Ono for opposing the Vietnam War, their friend Bob Dylan sent the government this handwritten letter.

Transcript:

JUSTICE for John & Yoko!

John and Yoko add a great voice and drive to this country’s so called ART INSTITUTION / They inspire and transcend and stimulate and by doing so, only can help others to see pure light and in doing that, put an end to this mild dull taste of petty commercialism which is being passed off as Artist Art by the overpowering mass-media. Hurray for John & Yoko. Let them stay and live here and breathe. The country’s got plenty of room and space. Let John and Yoko stay!

Bob Dylan

Image courtesy of historian Jon Wiener, author of the utterly fascinating book Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. For more information on the U.S. government’s treatment of John Lennon we also highly suggest watching the 2006  documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon.

Ahh…to go back to the days when pop musicians actually gave a shit about the world.

Photo File: Vivian Maier’s Street Photography

Real estate agent John Maloof stumbled upon the stunning photography of Vivian Maier after he bought 100,000 of her negatives from an auction in Chicago. Vivian, a mysterious photographer of whom little is known, documented the streets of Chicago from 1950-1990 purely for fun,  never attempting to publish any of her work before she died in 2009. After scanning the negatives Maloof realized he had something special and started a blog dedicated to Maier’s work.

Read more about the interesting backstory here and here

Maier’s photographs and life story have been gaining attention ever since this story broke back in October, including at the Chicago Cultural Center, where the exhibit “Finding Vivian Maier: Chicago Street Photographer” opened on January 7 and will stay on display until April 3.

See more Maier’s work here

Website Shout Out: PBS Arts

From the PBS press release (via Art Daily):

On August 25, PBS announced the launch of PBS Arts, a new website that offers Americans the opportunity to experience the arts and explore the creative process through special virtual exhibits, videos from PBS national and local programs and interactive features. The website is part of PBS’ ongoing commitment to strengthen public engagement in all forms of artistic expression and performance – in front of the camera and behind the scenes – and to bring more of the arts into the lives of millions of Americans. (via Art Daily)

The new PBS Arts website is organized into exhibitions and searchable by artistic discipline. The website will feature initially at least one new exhibition each month with content spanning all genres of the performing and visual arts, including dance, theater, contemporary music, opera, painting, sculpture, film and photography.  Current exhibitions include a look at contemporary artists responding to themes in the news, a tour of New Orleans five years after Katrina with artist Thomas Mann, and an overview of the sounds of Brazilian Samba singer Seu Jorge, who might know from from his popular Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs featured in the Wes Anderson movie, The Life Aquatic.

You can also watch full performances of Shakespeare plays starring Patrick Stewart aka Captain Picard, meet avant-garde filmmakers on Thirteen’s SundayArts, view slideshows of the best in visual arts from Art:21, and even submit your own work to PBS.

The site’s launch coincides with the recently released National Endowment for the Arts report, Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation, which indicates that people who engage with the arts on-air or online are three times more likely to attend a “live” event than non-media participants. For many adults, electronic media represents their sole means of experiencing dance, theater and music, the research showed, thus making PBS Arts truly an important online destination for all.

Explore PBS Arts here

Seu Jorge’s intimate performance of “Oluan” is a great place to start.