Google’s New ARTS & CULTURE App is Creepy and Cool

in #story7 years ago (edited)

Technology is typically a double-edged sword. These days it’s safe to assume that any consumer electronics product that begins with the word “smart” might make your life more convenient but you can also bet it’s going to compromise the hell out of your privacy in some way.

I’m a self-professed gadget/tech geek of the highest order. These days it takes quite a bit to wow me but yesterday Google did just that with their new Arts and Culture App.

I had seen article after article about the app the day before trying it. The app is a year old but, somehow, is just now going viral on social media. Why?

Just recently Google devised an ingenious gimmick to make the app more popular. It goes like this, if you take a selfie it will match your picture to a subject in a famous piece of art. There’s nothing like a little nod to people’s narcissistic tendencies to get the word out about your product. Hey, it worked for me.

I was talking to my wife on the phone while she was driving home from work (hence the earbuds) and I thought I’d give it a shot. The results were astounding.

It matched me with Giovanni Battista Moroni’s, “Portrait of a Gentleman (‘Il Gentile Cavaliere') from 1564-5.

The resemblance was beyond anything that I expected. This uncanny match caused me to take a deep dive into the history of both the artwork and the artist. This was a completely unplanned detour into the UK’s National Gallery and sixteenth century art that I wouldn’t have ever taken otherwise. Pretty cool, right?

Also, this is absolutely ingenious marketing on Google’s part. It dawned on me that they got me to expand my cultural horizons and all it cost me was the biometric signature of my face, which they will likely use in a variety of ways that I dare not even think about. Creepy.

Would you like to try it yourself? If so Click Here to read more about how the Arts & Culture app works. It's available for both Apple and Android devices.

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Great post . Thanks for sharing. You have described it perfectly. It is "cool and creepy".

Astonishing....... you really looks like Giovanni Battista Moroni’s, “Portrait of a Gentleman". i definitely try this app.

I'd be interested to see your result!

Just say no.. to google

Haha, yeah, probably not a bad idea to say no to Google.

I tried this app, it's pretty interesting to upload your photo and see if something like this hangs in a random museum around the world. Thank you for sharing.

It is interesting. It's actually quite an amazing app once you begin to dig into it a little deeper.

Haha pretty cool!The resemblance is really amazing!I need to try it as well!

If you try it please share the results!

Haha , We can travel to the last 1 ,000 years by this app

So cool! Looks like you fit right in with that time Giovanni!

It's so weird! Have you tried it @annhoyblog?

I knew it!

You're a time traveler!

Lol, sometimes I feel like I belong in a different time but then I think, "There wouldn't be blockchain or cryptocurrency in the past."

We'd be breaking pencils and crying over spilled ink. The first hard drive crash was actually a document ruining sneeze.

that's an incredible resemblance!!
Rob and I have also gone down the rabbit hole of this app and love seeing the results - yes we've done it multiple times...profiles, straight on etc...

I've been hoping that this might inspire interest in some paintings that most of us don't see or maybe have never seen and it sounds like that has happened for you! This is a good thing I believe.

I'd like to see some of your matches! This app is such a great portal to the arts for people who wouldn't normally take the time. I agree, this aspect of it is fabulous!

It's such a shame that these apps tend to only really work with caucasian faces; we wanna play too!

http://digg.com/2018/google-arts-culture-racist-face

PS I don't think it is racist, just a lazy oversight.

Cg

Yeah, it's also not super accurate in general. It matched my brother with someone of a completely different race.