Google Arts and Culture’s new “selfie” feature receives mixed reviews
Google Art and Culture’s new, free app has recently gone viral. The app analyzes and matches an individual’s face to the subjects of famous paintings.
The paintings are collected from a database containing over 6,000 exhibitions, with contributions from 1,500 museum partners located in seventy different countries. Though the app has been available since mid-December, the controversy surrounding it’s “selfie” feature is recent. Some have criticized the app’s “matching” accuracy.
Despite its debated shortcomings, the app has elicited much positive acclaim due to its active promotion of art education. As an included feature, users can view the full paintings they have been matched with, as well as a brief description of the artist’s work. Through the app, social media and classical art have proved themselves to be an unlikely, however successful, combination.
