The ever-present Google has taken its Street View technology indoors: into art museums, to be exact. The Google Art Project is brilliant in that it opens up our common cultural heritage to the public, if only as a simulation. With the price of museum admission rising, Google Art Project gives everyone with a computer and Internet access the opportunity to visit a museum. Don't be fooled, it's not the same as being there--the color and texture of a painting is never going to the be same on a computer screen as it is in life. But what it does offer is an expanded experience of those artworks, instantly linking them to the stories, histories, and provenance that are as important as the works themselves. It's a whole new way of discovering art.

It's also a great way of seeing and understanding the museum spaces themselves. Much the way Google Street View gives one a sense of a street without having to be immersed in the rush of street traffic, Google Art Project allows one to get a sense of the space of a museum.

The project is Character Approved if only because it has me wanting to visit the real museums again, soon. Seeing a Renoir via my computer screen is not at all as magical as seeing it for real, but it is a good use of a coffee break.

[Image: Google Art Project]