GLAM/Newsletter/December 2018/Contents/Brazil report
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Google Art and GLAM initiatives in Brazil
GLAM initiatives are not the only ones that are contributing to the online and large-scale aggregation of archives of cultural institutions. Another major initiative is from Google, which started as the Google Art Project (GAP), in 2011, and currently is called “Google Arts & Culture”.
The GA&C platform is composed of several Google projects, such as: Historic Moments, with historical exhibits; World Wonders Project, with Street View of world heritage sites by UNESCO; Street Art Project, with contemporary street art; and GAP.
Google Art partnerships usually take place in three ways. The first one is similar to the GLAM initiatives. In it, the works are made available on the platform with images and metadata provided by the institution, but without any content increase. The metadata may vary in complexity depending on the work done by the cultural institution itself.
The second and third ways are made by Google. One is the production of gigapixel (7 billion megapixels) images of certain paintings. The other is the Street View, made with three-dimensional photographs taken within the physical space of the institution, with the intention of imitating a real visit to the place.
Since its entry in Brazil, Google Art has already made many partnerships with institutions. Among them is Pinacoteca, an important state museum, and the Paulista Museum (Ipiranga Museum), which also has a GLAM initiative under development.
At Pinacoteca, Google made the first Brazilian gigapixel photo, in 2012, with the painting "Saudade", by Almeida Júnior. And the first Street View, but only on the first floor of the museum.
Initially, the total number of files available was only 98. Currently, 234 items of this institution are available on the platform, with some dozens of gigapixel works. However, a few more are planned to be shared in the coming months, as a team of photographers worked at the institution again in the middle of 2018. Some of this content has already been made available on-wiki, including some of the gigapixel produced.
In recent months, Google's partnership with the Museu Paulista has also grown. 1057 items of this institution were made available on the platform, among them is the gigapixel of "Independência ou Morte", the largest painting ever photographed by the initiative (415 cm high and 760 cm wide).
The Museu Paulista Wiki-GLAM initiative also benefits from the partnership of this museum with Google, since the GA&C platform serves as an alternative for identification of the paintings, since the museum's own website can not offer this option.
In recent weeks, users participating in the Museu Paulista GLAM have made links between the items in Google Art and Wikidata. This process will be available shortly. Some of the gigapixel produced in Paulista Museum have also been uploaded to Commons.
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