Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Supporting a new home for Poland’s rich Jewish history
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
For 1000 years, Poland was home to the world’s largest Jewish population and the centre of Jewish religious, cultural and political thought. The
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
, whose core exhibition opens in Warsaw on October 28, highlights this rich history.
We took our StreetView technology inside the museum, which is housed in an award-winning new building directly opposite the memorial to the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising. We are happy to invite you to the first Museum View launch in Poland, available all around the world on the Google Cultural Institute. Enjoy a walk through the corridors.
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The online exhibit "
How to make a museum
" published by POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews invites you to discover the story of the creation of the museum, from the original idea in 1993 to the inauguration in 2014. You will go behind the scenes of this monumental project and learn about the process of gathering support in Poland and abroad, raising funds, organizing an international architectural competition, preparing the Core Exhibition, and developing the educational and cultural program.
The evening opening event will be live-streamed on YouTube from 7 to 9 p.m. on October 28. Watch it on the
museum’s channel
. The event, open to the public, will feature concerts by clarinetist David Krakauer and trumpeter Tomasz Stańko as well as a play directed by Andrzej Strzelecki based on Julian Tuwim’s poem „My Żydzi polscy” (“Us Polish Jews”).
The new museum represents an important step in reviving the memory of Poland’s rich, millenium long Jewish history. Developed by an international team of historians, museum experts and Jewish Studies scholars, it shows how Jews both prospered and suffered. As the Economist recently wrote, the exhibit “restores some balance” to the often one-sided debate that often focuses on the community’s destruction in World War II. We’re glad that Google tools can help get across this important message.
Posted by Piotr Zalewski, Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Warsaw
Honoring Finland’s Famed Architect Alvar Aalto
Monday, August 25, 2014
Alvar Aalto
changed the way we see the world. Finland’s famed architect and designer not only built path-breaking buildings - during his long, fruitful life, he also designed some of the 20th century’s most innovative furniture, textiles and glassware. Today, we’re proud to announce a partnership with the
Alvar Aalto Foundation
to bring much of this genius’s important work online - allowing anyone, anywhere to virtually visit many of his his most important buildings and learn about his design breakthroughs.
This project means something special to many of us at Google. We have built one of our two largest
data centers
in Finland - and the architect of our data center building was none other than Aalto. The Finnish master originally designed our data center in Hamina as a paper mill. The mill closed in 2007. We took over the empty building, transformed and expanded it, investing so far almost a billion euros and creating hundreds of jobs in the region, while attempting to keep intact as much as possible of the Aalto heritage. Take a look. We’re publishing new Street View images of the renovated exterior and interior today on our main data center page.
Aalto designed many other buildings in the area around our data center - including the world-famed Sunila worker housing in Kotka. We long have shown the outsides of these buildings on StreetView. We’re now adding the interiors.
Many of Aalto’s most famous buildings are located hundreds of kilometers apart, making them difficult to visit. We toured the entire country to photograph his most important masterpieces. We went to his hometown Jyvaskyla in central Finland and photographed the
Alvar Aalto Museum
and
Säynätsalo Town Hall
.
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We went to Imatra and are presenting the famed Church of the Three Crosses.
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In the Finnish capital Helsinki, we captured not only Aalto’s own studio but also two important cultural buildings, Finlandia Hall and the House of Culture. At the Restaurant Savoy, Aalto brought Finnish nature into the center of Helsinki, designing still-in-production door knobs, clean-lined lighting fixtures, club chairs, and the famed Savoy vase, mirroring the outlines of a Finnish lake.
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The cooperation with Finland’s Aalto Foundation includes
two new online exhibitions
on our Google Cultural Institute platform. The first focuses on Aalto’s famed
three legged stool 60
. This much imitated model relied on one of Aalto’s most important innovations - a new process for bending wood that he applied to create organic shapes. The stool was designed in 1933 and was first used in two major early works of Aalto: Paimio Sanatorium and Vyborg Library before becoming an iconic piece of modernist furniture for people to furnish their homes with.
A second exhibition describes the renovation of the
Vyborg Library
. The building was immediately considered a modernist chef d’oeuvre, softening and humanizing the hard edges of German Bauhaus strictures into a new original, organic style, replacing steel with wood, and creating a warm, cosy atmosphere for the reader. When the Library was constructed, the city of Viipuri was in Finland. After World War II, Finland was forced to hand it over to the Soviet Union and it became Vyborg. The library survived the war but remained unused for twenty years and fell into disrepair. Finally in 2013 the renovation was completed.
Together, these initiatives demonstrate our commitment and confidence in Finland. This is a hard time for the country, with growth slowing and unemployment rising. At the same time, our Hamina data centre keeps expanding and Internet infrastructure represent an important ray of economic hope. As this project demonstrates, we are committed to the country and are delighted to use the Internet to promote Finnish culture.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe
Teaming up with Europeana to bring Europe’s culture online
Friday, August 1, 2014
It was a natural marriage. Our
Google Cultural Institute
based in Paris is devoted to partnering with institutions around the world to allow online access to art, archives and other, often previously hard-to-find culture.
Europeana
, launched in 2009, represents a bold European project bringing together more than 2,000 museums, archives, and other institutions, with their rich collections of millions of books, paintings, films and other objects.
Given these complementary missions, it is with great pleasure that we just have launched Europeana’s first
exhibit
on our Cultural Institute. Curated by the
Austrian National Library
, the new virtual exhibition is part of
Europeana’s 1914-1918 projec
t and represents the first Austrian contribution to our own Cultural Institute’s
First World War channel
.
The Austrian library exhibition guides visitors through the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph’s manifestos, from announcements for mobilisation, to administering shortages, to dealing with prisoners of war and refugees. “Putting the content online ensures that all of this history is preserved for future generations,” said Wiebe de Jager of Europeana. “Partnerships with prestigious platforms such as the Google Cultural Institute is one way to effectively share with people our common history that defined who we are and what we do.”
Online exhibition “To My Peoples!”, by Europeana in association with Austrian National Library
It’s a tremendous undertaking to bring Europe’s rich cultural heritage online, one that can only be achieved by both private and public effort. As this collaboration shows, both Europeana and Google share similar visions - allowing people around the world to explore Europe's cultural and scientific heritage from prehistory to the modern day.
Posted by Simon Rein, Google Cultural Institute, Program Manage
Celebrating Czech culture online
Monday, July 21, 2014
Václav Havel
was a playwright, essayist, poet, philosopher - and also a politician, first a leading anti-communist dissident and then president of Czechoslovakia. A new exhibit on this remarkable man just has been launched on our Cultural Institute. It shows the interior of his
quirky, personalised office
, full of brightly colored furniture and modern art, and recounts the trajectory of his
remarkable life
.
Vaclav Havel's quirky office
The new Havel exhibit is only one of a slew of new exhibitions celebrating Czech culture. Until now, the Culture Institute featured only two Czech galleries, the Kampa Museum and the National Gallery. Nine new Czech museums and organizations from all around the country have joined, bringing together up to 500 art works. Two new high definition gigapixel pictures are featured, including Jiri Sopko’s spectacular
Dance
. In addition to Havel, the life of the first Czechoslovak President
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk
is featured.
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk
Enjoy the exhibitions from the other Czech partner museums:
Museum of Decorative Arts
Jewish Museum in Prague
Egon Schiele Art Centrum
Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové
Moravian Gallery in Brno
Olomouc Museum of Art
Along with the new Czech museum exhibits, we also launched new Street View imagery, including interiors of museums. Our launch event took place in the Decorative Arts Museum’s library.
The entrance to the Decorative Arts Museum Library
Launching the new exhibits
The venue will be closed soon due to reconstruction of its historical building - but it will remain visible and visitable online.
Posted by Martina Ondrusova, Communications Manager, Prague
Enjoy the best of Slovakia with the Google Cultural Institute
Friday, July 4, 2014
Slovakia enjoys a rich, vibrant culture, full of beautiful music, famous painters, and both natural and manmade wonders. Last week at the beautiful Cafe Berlinka at the Slovak National Gallery, the Google Cultural Institute welcomed its first ever partners from the Central European nation. Eight museums and galleries from across the country have made available their content so that it can be explored in more detail by people around the world.
The
exhibitions
features works by famous Slovak painters; Ladislav Mednyánszky, Ľudovít Fulla, Martin Benka and sculptors such as Štefan Siváň and Jozef Jankovič. A super high resolution image of Mednyánszky's
"Bank of a river in bloom
" contraststhe botanical details on the river bank in bloom with the hazy river. Zoom into the barely there image of grazing cattle in the distance. We also have published Indoor Street View imagery of the Chateau Strážky and Bratislava City Gallery.
Another exhibition features the jewels of
Slovakia's Natural History Museum
including an ancient Egyptian mummy, a skull of Homo sapiens from the late Upper Palaeolithic and a Palaeontological collection with traces of dinosaurs.
Posted by Martina Ondrusova, Communications Manager, Prague
Commemorating World War I
Friday, June 27, 2014
A century ago, a Serb nationalist assassinated Austrian Archduke
Franz Ferdinand
, sparking World War I. Today, we are launching a new
channel
dedicated to commemorate the war’s centenary. It brings together World War I content, paintings, photographs, letters, documents, soldiers’ poems and more, from a range of Museum partners, ranging from the German Federal Archives to the Belgian Mundaneum to the Imperial War Museum.
A search for Franz Ferdinand brings up
photos
relating to the Archeduke’s assassination. They show the Franz and his wife Sophie arriving in Sarajevo. Outfitted in regal dress, treated with the pomp and circumstance of royalty, they stroll through the streets. A final image shows police arresting Serb assassin
Gavrilo Princip
.
Other exhibits explore the art around the conflict and personal impact of the conflict. Belgium’s Mundaneum has collected postcards sent from POW camps. The Imperial War Museum’s features
Christopher Nevinson's bleak landscapes
. The British authorities censored some of the paintings for being too “negative.” At the same time, the museum also features
John Nash’s patriotic paintings
.
The German side of the war is well represented, with more than
200 new items in 13 new exhibits
. Items include photographs, newspapers, letters, army documents, ration cards, and unusual items like the anti war poem written by a German soldier which lead to his detention. Exhibits range from German policy around the Sarajevo assassination to the rise of German airships to problems of nutrition due to the conflict.
The exhibits are designed for for a wide audience and full of exciting details for specialists. More content will be added over the coming months and years as commemorations around the Great War continue.
Posted by James Davis, Google Culture Institute, Paris
The world is a canvas: introducing the street art project
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Here today, gone tomorrow. The transient nature of street art means it can be at risk of being scrubbed out and lost forever to its legions of fans. But long after the paint has faded from the walls, technology can help preserve street art, so people can discover it wherever and whenever they like. In a new project launching today, we’ve partnered with street art experts to bring you 5,000+ images and around 100 exhibitions in the Google Art Project—telling a story of street art around the world.
Starting today, you can immerse yourself in a world of
prowling foxes frogs on lonely walls
,
supernatural symbolism
,
murals
on a grand scale,
tiny hard-to-spot icons
, or
trompe l’oeil
techniques that use physical details of the wall itself to trick the eye.
From Poland to Portugal; London to Vienna, the styles of work vary considerably. There are
stickers in France
,
sculptures in London
and
portraits of rappers on the streets of Malaga
. It’s not just about spraypaint either—other exhibits demonstrate the signature style of the artist, like
JR’s large-scale and evocative photo-portraits
,
Roa’s animals
,
Vhils’ acid etching
or
Os Gemeos' surrealism
.
Regg and Violant,
Centro Comercial Alegro, Setúbal,
Galeria de Arte Urbana
Vhils using the texture of the wall as a canvas
Using Street View, you can also explore buildings with street art that are closed to the public, or that have already been demolished - such as the famed Paris 13 tower.
Agrandir le plan
Explore all nine floors and 450 square meters of painted ceilings and walls of the now-demolished Tour Paris 13 building, immortalized with Street View.
In a series of fascinating exhibitions by our partners, you can also learn about the
origins of the street art movement
or see how Street Art is being used
in Poland to revitalize its cities
. Take a tour through the work of artists from the infamous
Bristol graffiti scene
and
get wild about nature in Portugal.
Street art may be temporary on our walls and sidewalks, but its beauty and vibrancy live on, on the web. Take a look— you’re sure to be bowled over by the variety of the urban canvas.
Posted by Lucy Schwartz, Programme Manager, Google Cultural Institute & Julie Pottier, Marketing Manager, Google Cultural Institute
Commemorating D-Day’s 70th anniversary
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
On the 70th day of the momentous
D-Day Normandy landings
, our Cultural Institute is launching two initiatives to commemorate: a
G+ Hangout on Air
with veterans and five new online exhibitions.
The Hangout with D-Day veterans will allow anybody, anywhere to hear direct from veterans on their D-Day experiences. It takes place live from the
Caen War Memorial
at 6 p.m. Central Europe time. French television journalist Gilles Bouleau will host and Caen Memorial historian Christophe Prime will lend his expertise. American, French and British veterans will participate. High school students from both the U.S. and France will join the discussion.
At the same time, we’re publishing online
Normandy landings exhibitions
from the Caen War Memorial and other Cultural Institute partners, including the U.K’s Imperial War Museum and Bletchley Park code breakers center, the George C Marshall Research Foundation and the US National Archives. The exhibitions include exciting, previously unshown
video footage
of the landing,
letters
from soldiers and the original
assault plan
. All told, 470 new documents and images are included.
Take some time to browse - and reflect on the sacrifices made to secure Europe’s freedom.
Posted by Sixtine Fabre, Associate Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute
Take a look at this Easter Bunny
Friday, April 11, 2014
Albrecht Dürer's masterpiece the Hare is a favourite Easter image, and today it serves as a model for chocolate bunnies. The
Google Cultural Institute
is celebrating this season by today releasing a gigapixel image of the
Hare
. Gigapixel images contain billions of pixels, that’s around 1,000 times more detailed than your average digital camera.
Albrecht Dürer: Hare, 1502,
The watercolor painting is extremely light sensitive -- so much so that the museum who owns it, the
Albertina
in Austria, only can show it to the public every few years. From now on, thanks to the Internet, everyone can experience the magic of Dürer's technique at the most incredible level of detail at any time.
Zoom to a detail on Google Art Project
Dürer painted the Hare in 1502, rendering the animal with an almost photographic accuracy that is extraordinary today as it was more than 500 years ago. It is the artist’s most famous study of nature and one of the finest in Western art. The hare’s fur spreads out in different directions and is spotted in light and dark patches. Dürer not only managed to create a detailed, almost scientific, study of the animal, but also used nuanced brushwork to paint the finest hairs of its coat, infusing the picture with warmth, light and life.
The animal’s watchful eyes, vibrating whiskers, and alert ears give the impression that the hare might hop out off the paper at any moment. An interesting detail to explore using the zoom feature is the the hare’s right eye which appears to reflect the interior of a room or form the shape of a cross.
According to the Albertina curators
, the image might be a reflection of the artist’s studio, or perhaps the Christian symbol of the cross which would lend religious significance to this image from nature. Take a look, and come up with your own ideas.
Posted by Simon Rein, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute
Visiting Marseille’s unbeaten tracks
Monday, April 7, 2014
Have you ever visited a city and wished that a local could share their insider secrets? Wouldn’t it be even better to be able to put on your headphones and listen to their advice while strolling? In France, together with Marseille radio journalist Julie de Muer, we’ve just launched a fascinating online experiment, called “
Night Walk
.”
Julie and several artists involved with local broadcaster
Radio Grenouille
created the project. Using her recording skills, Julie created “soundwalks”: audio tours that explain the history and hidden sights and sounds of the streets, with stories told by local inhabitants. Visitors just have to download a sound track and a Google Maps route from the
Soundwalks website
to travel in the steps of these unusual guides, through their stories and their sounds.
More than 40 soundwalks have been created and marked out on Google Maps. Since 2013, they have enabled more than 20,000 visitors to discover the southern French cities of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and Aubagne.
Creating the soundwalks has been quite a task. It has taken no less than four years of collective work exploring the cities, meeting new people, recording streets and sounds and putting together the interactive website.
Want to take a walk through the Marseille streets yourself? It's simple: follow an evening soundwalk around
Marseille’s Cours Julien
, with local musician Christophe Perruchi guiding you as you walk. See a graffiti artist at work. Listen to a jazz jam in one of the neighborhood’s bars, find the 35 “secrets” hidden in the neighborhood, discover a fire-eater or the city’s most surprising garage entrance…and enjoy!
Posted by Chloe Broughton, Product Marketing Manager, Paris
Bringing the Dutch constitution online
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Some documents are drilled deep into the fibre of country’s identity, but few citizens actually get to see the originals. In the Netherlands, the 1814 Constitution turned the country into a constitutional monarch and is considered to be the basis of the country’s modern government. Now, partnering with
Dutch National Archive
and the
National Committee for the Kingdom's Bicentenary
, we are making the original available to the public in a new Google Cultural Institute exhibition on the
Bicentenary of the Dutch Constitution
.
The Dutch constitution is only the latest part of our wide
Constitute project
, providing searchable access to 187 constitutions, ranging from the Afghanistan to Zambia. Tagged passages of each constitution with a topic — “right to privacy” or “equality regardless of gender” — allow users to find relevant excerpts on a particular subject. Want to view results for a specific region or time period? You can limit your search by country or by date using the buttons under the search bar.
The new Dutch exhibition marks the 200th anniversary of the Dutch Constitution, making it one of the oldest constitutions still in existence, second only to the American Constitution. The National Committee for the Kingdom's Bicentenary marked this exceptional and festive anniversary as the perfect occasion to organise its second national event, the
Constitution Festival
.
In addition to the Dutch Constitution, the exhibition includes eight other important documents, ranging from the 1839 Treaty of London separating the Netherlands and Belgium to the 1854 Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Posted by Mark Jansen, Head of Communications, Google Benelux
Bringing the Opéra to the Cultural Institute
Thursday, March 27, 2014
For the first time, the Google Cultural Institute has been given ‘access all areas’ to one of the world’s most famous Opera Houses: the Palais Garnier in Paris, the setting for
The Phantom of the Opera.
Our indoor Street View
images
feature exquisite detail and allow anyone in the world to tour 11 floors (and 3.7km!) of the Palais Garnier. You can now experience virtually what it’s like to be on stage, backstage, in the rehearsal rooms, the costume room, a hidden lake or even on the roof of the Opéra building, overlooking Paris’ skyline!
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View from the stage (Mezzanine and Orchestra)
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View of the “Grand Foyer”
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View of the ground floor main staircase and “Grand Véstibule”
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View from the “4ème loges”
In our second installment from the Paris Opéra House, we bring you what we think might be the world's first multi-billion pixel image of a ceiling - it's certainly the first one to be captured by our team!
Marc Chagall’s masterpiece in the Opéra Garnier
in Paris sits 18 meters above the auditorium seating, with specific light conditions and a concave shape, making it one of our biggest technical challenges to date.
In his riotously colourful modernist work, Chagall pays tribute to the composers Mozart, Wagner, Mussorgsky, Berlioz and Ravel, as well as to famous actors and dancers. And if you look carefully you might even be able to spot famous characters such as Carmen, or the discreet signature of the artist, 18 metres from the ground.
Finally, the Opéra has produced an online exhibition called
Le Chemin des Etoiles
, with portrait photos and information about more than 80 of its star dancers over the last 74 years.
Posted by Sixtine Fabre, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute
A kingdom of YouTube: Saudi Arabia
Monday, March 24, 2014
Think “Saudi Arabia,” and one thing probably comes to mind - oil. But the desert kingdom is also remarkable for another reason - its love of YouTube. In 2013, the average Saudi Internet user watched three times as many videos per day as the average U.S. user. Saudis aren’t just watching: more and more are producing video content and building businesses.
These successful Saudi YouTube content creators recently gathered for a seminar in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. In the course of a day, they compared their experiences, learned how to create viral Arabic language videos and received tips on how to make money with their online shows.
No cinemas exist in Saudi Arabia, explaining part of the online video phenomena. The Internet allows room to tackle issues often avoided by foreign run TV stations - and permits satire in a way unavailable elsewhere in the Kingdom. A recent hit by
UTURN
spoofed the popular “First Kiss” video, showing various men performing the locally traditional “touching of the nose” embrace in a humorous manner.
“Eysh Elly”
has won more than two million subscribers and more than 200 million views by discussing, and often poking fun at everyday life in the Kingdom. One show, for example, tackled the issue of child care. As the show’s producer says, “we promote harmony, honesty and halal,” discussing issues that “only a Saudi would understand only something a Saudi would talk about.”
Other YouTube Saudi productions tackle issues previously neglected in the local media. UTURN runs a show called Salemha which teaches English by using clips from popular Hollywood movies.
Noon Al Niswa
and
SenTube
focuses health and fitness.
Ana wa Heya
(Him and Her), pits men against women to debate social issues of Saudi culture.
As elsewhere, light entertainment including music and games are popular. Saudi video gaming channels such as
D7oomy999
,
Saudi Gamer
and
Zpad
receive widespread attention not just in the Middle East. Music also can contain a serious message:
TELFAZ11’s
Alaa Wardi’s “No Women No Drive” song, chanted in an acapella version mixing Arabic and Western musical styles, raised awareness about Saudi women fighting for the right to drive.
Arabic content on the web represents just three percent of the total digital content online—yet Arabic speakers make up more than 5 percent of the global population. YouTube in Saudi Arabia is helping close this gap—helping local talents get discovered, express their opinions and start their own businesses. In Saudi Arabia, the Internet is moving the country far beyond oil.
Posted by Haisam Yehia, YouTube team, Middle East, North Africa
Partnering in Belgium to create a capital of culture
Thursday, March 20, 2014
The Belgian city of
Mons
becomes a European capital of culture next year, ushering in 12 months of festivities. One of Google’s two major European
data centers
is located just down the road from the city, making us a major local investor and employer. It is only natural that we want to help put some sparkle into the city’s ambitious capital of culture plans.
At today’s press conference launch of the
Mons 2015 program
, we launched something special and sparkling - new Indoor
Street View
images. Street View cars and trikes captured new imagery of some of Mons’s most famous buildings - both their exteriors - and for the first time, their interiors. These include the splendid Grand Place, including the inside of the the
City Hall
, the
Collégiale Sainte Waudru
, and the
BAM
art museum.
Mons is an architectural treasure. The canonesses of the Sainte Waudru religious community began their first church in 1450 and the Brabant Gothic style church remains of the most beautiful buildings in Mons. Inside, the exceptional Treasure of Sainte Waudru houses a precious collection of gold and remarkable 16th-century alabaster statues from the artist and Mons resident
Jacques du Broeucq
.
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The historic city centre is dominated by the
Grand Place
and its remarkable City Hall. Commissioned by
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy
, famed architect Matthijs de Layens designed the imposing edifice.
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Throughout the coming year and a half, we’ll continue to support the Mons 2015 adventure, in particular by working with our longtime partners, the
Mundaneum
archive. More than a century ago, two visionary Belgians envisioned the World Wide Web’s architecture of hyperlinks and indexation of information, not on computers, but on paper cards. Their creation was called the Mundaneum.
The Mundaneum plans an exciting “Mapping Knowledge” exhibition. Together, we are bringing high-level speakers to the city to explore Internet issues. Our own chief Internet evangelist and “father of the Internet”
Vint Cerf
recently visited and presented his vision of the future to a packed audience at the city’s 600 seat Manege Theater. Mons’ time on the big stage of European culture promises many more exciting events.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe
First time for everything at Cultural Institute
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Today we’re celebrating a series of "firsts" at our Cultural Institute - our first Nigerian partner, our first Pakistani partner, and our first Native American partner.
Nigeria's
Pan-Atlantic University
is presenting its collection of rare historical documents and photographs that tell the story of
Nigeria’s formation as a colony
. A second exhibition documents through rare photographs
Lagos
's transformation
from a cosmopolitan colonial trading center to West Africa’s largest metropolis.
Colonial Lagos
Modern Lagos
Our first partner from Pakistan is the Citizen’s Archive. Its
exhibit
documents the emergence of new media after the country’s independence in 1948. During this period, traditional art forms were revived on radio and television, with series that addressed issues such as the role of women.
Pakistani TV medical drama from the 1980s
Mashantucket Pequot Museum's collection encompasses 20,000 years of Native American history. Its eye-opening exhibition on
Neetôpáwees
(pronounced nee-top-a-wees) means “Little Friends” in the Mohegan-Pequot language.
In the exhibition, we discover dolls from the past 125 years, and their myriad uses: as medicine dolls, possessing healing and protective powers, important tokens of exchange and respect between Northeastern Native American tribes, and interactive, educational toys. The dolls’ stories and meanings are as varied as their origins, design, and materials.
Two Indian dolls on exhibit
Posted by Lauren Nemroff, Program Manager, Google Cultural Institute
Inviting you to take a Romanesque journey
Monday, February 3, 2014
More than a millenium before the birth of the European Union, a style of architecture and art spread across the continent. It was called Romanesque and it emerged almost simultaneously in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany with sufficient unity to be considered Europe’s first common international art style.
Celebrating this achievement, our Cultural Institute just has launched launch a new, virtual exhibition, called
“Origins of Romanesque: the Birth of Europe.”
Curated by the
Santa María la Real Foundation
, it presents 26 iconic expressions of Romanesque beauty, explaining their social, political and cultural context. More than 100 guests attended the launch event in Madrid, featuring the president of the Foundation, José María Perez Peridis and the President of National Heritage as speakers.
Monestaries and abbeys led the way in spreading Romanesque constructions. In Spain, Romanesque cathedrals, churches, monasteries, cloisters and chapels mark the famed
Camino de Santiago pilgrammage
route.
Elsewhere in Europe, abbeys in
Fulda,
Lorsch
,
St. Gallen
and
Bobbio
arose in the 11th century and became beacons for the new style, as did Europe’s first universities, beginning with
Bologna
in 1088.
Beside exploring Romanesque buildings, the new online exhibition includes drawings, photographs, films and video about Romanesque Europe.
We hope this present exhibition is only the first of a series, exploring other a series of exhibitions on life and art in Europe from Roman to modern times. Our goal is help everyone learn about and enjoy the beauties from the past.
Posted by Barbara Navarro, Director of Institutional Relations and Public Affairs Google
Made in Italy goes digital
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Italy long has been famed for its quality of life, its fashion, its heritage and its food. We believe the Internet can help promote the Made in Italy lifestyle brand and the
Google Cultural Institute
has worked with the
Italian Agriculture Ministry
,
Union of Chambers of Commerce
, the
University Ca' Foscari
,
the
Symbola Foundation
to launch an online platform designed to help bring Made in Italy online.
On the new platform, anybody, anywhere can discover hundreds of digital displays, stories, pictures, videos, and historical documents about Italian craftsmanship. Many of Italy’s most famous culinary and handcraft products are represented, from
Parmigiano Reggiano
cheese and
Prosciutto di San Daniele
ham to
Murano glass
and
Montappone Hats
. Little-known gems also can be uncovered such as
Vercelli accordions
and
Ascoli Piceno
lace.
Discover Montappone Hats
Many of the best Italian producers are small and medium sized, family-owned companies. They are homes to craftsmen who produce niche products. By bringing them online, we hope to help them export and reach global markets. Before, an American or Chinese buyer would have found it hard to obtain many of these Italian gems. With the new site, niche products no longer are forced into niche markets.
Online interest is growing in Italian “cultural” products. Google searches in these categories grew by 12 percent last year; fashion is the most searched category, followed by tourism and food. Even so, Made in Italy producers still lag with their digital activities: only 34 percent of Italian SMEs have their own website and only 13 percent use it to do e-commerce.
Media partner
Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso
, excited about the economic potential of the internet, dedicated an entire
section
to the project, focusing on examples of successful Italian entrepreneurs going digital. Savor this new digital platform - and encourage more and more Italian purveyors of the sweet life to benefit from the Internet.
Posted by Luisella Mazza, Program Manager, Cultural Institute and Diego Ciulli, Public Policy Analyst, Rome
Honoring Irish casualties from World War I
Friday, January 10, 2014
During World War I, about 50,000 Irish soldiers died fighting in the British army. Until now, these records were located only in a book released in 1923 and published in a mere 100 copies. Google has worked with the Irish genealogical history and heritage company
Eneclann
and the
In Flanders Fields Museum
in Ypres, Belgium to build a
new Irish memorial website
, bringing a list of Irish war dead available online and making it searchable with
this simple tool
.
Today, Ireland’s Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Eamon Gilmore T.D.
, launched the new website with Northern Ireland First Minister
Peter Robinson
and deputy First Minister
Martin McGuinness
at our Dublin headquarters. “While the digitisation and online access to this record will be a rich resource for genealogy, most significant is its value in facilitating the simple and important act of remembering the individuals, Irish men and women, who lost their lives in the First World War,” Tánaiste Gilmore said.
The two Northern Irish leaders spoke movingly about the project. “My presence is a clear indication of the maturity in confronting history on this island. For many years, this as something that people were not prepared to talk about, to face up to, to acknowledge,” said deputy First Minister McGuinness. First Minister Peter Robinson agreed, saying: “As we enter an important decade of commemorations in both our countries, it is my hope that what has been established here today will keep alive the history and the stories of those who did not return from war.”
Deputy First Minister McGuiness
Work on the archive dates back to July 2012 when the Irish ambassador to Belgium, Éamonn Mac Aodha approached Google and In Flanders Fields Museum. During the research, the museum discovered that the records for Irish casualties of the First World War were neither fully correct nor complete. More records simply list France as place of death. Many probably instead died in Flanders - in all some 11,060 out of the 49,000 have now been identified as being killed or commemorated or buried in Belgium.
More than 100 guests attended today’s launch. These included family members who had researched relatives who died in World War One; members of the diplomatic corps; political representatives and historians and academics, and members of commemorative organisations. Our idea is to engage the public and increase knowledge about these casualties. If you find an ancestor or locate a long-lost relative in the list send, documents, pictures, letters or any other relevant information, email namenlijst@ieper.be. The information will be verified and added to the website.
The new Irish World War I records search tool
This event marks the opening of the ceremonies for the 100th year of the outbreak of World War I. We’re proud to play a part in this project as a sign of our commitment to Ireland, our European headquarters, and to using technology to fill in holes left by history.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Online exhibitions made easy with Google Open Gallery
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Do you run a small gallery and would like people to be able to dive into the
hidden depths of your artworks
with a powerful zoom? Perhaps you’ve been busy tidying your loft/attic and discovered a treasure trove of photos that can tell an amazing story, like
Dean Putney who unearthed a huge archive
of photos taken by his Grandfather, a German officer during World War I. Or are you an artist like
Vitor Rolim
from Brazil, and want to show the evolution of your work but are not sure you have the technical expertise?
Help is now at hand with
Google Open Gallery
, which launches today. For the past few years, we've worked with museums around the world to make their collections available on the
Google Cultural Institute
. Now, we’ve opened up the technologies behind this project so that anyone with cultural content can publish it, creating exhibitions that tell engaging stories on their own website. Take a look at how the
Belgian Comic Strip Center
used the Google Open Gallery to tell the story of their iconic Art Nouveau building—the Waucquez Warehouse—through a quirky mix of comic-style drawings, photographs, sketches and first hand experiences.
Google Open Gallery helps you to create a beautiful experience for people to view your collection, at the click of a button. We’ll host your content and give you access to our technology at no cost to you or your organisation. It’s pretty simple—just upload images, add video, Street View imagery and text, interweaving your story among the images to create an exhibition that will truly engage your visitors. The
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery
matches archive photos with modern day Street View imagery. Berndnaut Smilde is a contemporary artist living and working in Amsterdam, famous for creating stunning clouds as part of his Nimbus series. There’s plenty to inspire the budding artist in you with these 45 new Google Open Gallery creations from around the world so why not get exploring!
It’s not just online that we’ve been busy. Today, we officially opened the
Lab at the Cultural Institute
a physical space within our Google Paris office where the worlds of culture and technology are brought together to discuss, debate and explore new ideas. It’s also where we don our white coats and test out things like 3D scanners, million pixel cameras, interactive screens and more, working with museums to try them out inside their spaces to get their feedback.
We’ll be adding new features to Google Open Gallery and more technologies to the Lab as time goes by and will have plenty more to tell you in the coming months so watch this space!
Posted by Robert Tansley, Google Open Gallery Product Manager & Laurent Gaveau, Head of The Lab at the Cultural Institute
Culture on the web: the surprising rise of the new voices
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Like many industries, the Internet has upended the world of news and culture. While it has undermined some traditional business models, media consultancy
Oliver & Ohlbaum
published two new studies that we commissioned this week showing that the net is powering the rise of exciting new voices and small players. YouTube stars are building fame online before securing a record deal or a film contract. Newshounds now discover, share, and comment on stories on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
In the first study,
Different media, different roles, different expectations: the nature of news consumption in the digital age
, Oliver & Ohlbaum set out to answer the question of how the Internet affects access to and consumption of news. Are readers consuming more news than they did in the age of ink? From more or fewer sources? After surveying data from the UK and Germany, the researchers found:
A new generation of news junkies is emerging:
On average, all UK adults consulted an average of 2.7 news sources per week, while online readers visit almost twice as many - 5.2 news websites.
Readers are expanding their horizons, consulting a wide array of sources:
In both the UK and Germany, readers now spend only 5-20% of their news-time on their favorite newspaper. Instead, they consume news from, on average, eight other sources.
Readers are encountering a broad range of views:
Even where consuming user generated ‘less trustworthy’ sources, 47% say this is to encounter views different from their own.
Established media retain significant influence:
Television remains considered the most authoritative media source and big brands continue to earn greater trust, audience attention, and influence on consumer opinion than other sources.
A second study,
The Internet and the creative industries: measuring growth within a changing sector ecology
, examines current approaches to measuring the ‘creative sector’; and the impact of the internet on the role of independent artists and small businesses in the business of culture. Drawing on case studies from the UK, France and Sweden, the research finds that the Internet has increased the numbers of creative sector SMEs and 'sole traders.'
In the music industry of twenty years ago, for example, a single record label hired lawyers, accountants, cafeteria workers. Today, many of these roles are distributed among small businesses and independent players. A band might be discovered on YouTube, hire professionals on an hourly basis to handle contracts, self-publish and self-market.
Until now, most research has failed to take into account this structural shift toward ‘unorganized content producers,’ suggesting that they fail to capture a great deal of activity. See below.
What is needed, the researchers conclude, is a new way of measuring the culture industry. Specifically, this new measurement must identify and measure the contribution of SMEs and sole traders. Only when we have reliable statistics can we truly understand the Internet’s impact on the business of news and culture.
Posted by Simon Morrison, Public Policy and Government Relations Manager
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