Summertime Europe has gone far beyond the breaking point in the major tourist attractions. The unairconditioned repositories of treasures are now packed so full of tourists that the works of art are being subjected to substantially more heat and humidity than they have ever previously experienced. Also, I watched in horror as visitors put their greasy paws on everything within reach. Museums have tried to defend their collection against this new generation of touchy/feely visitors by putting everything famous behind glass, sometimes behind glass and then in a Plexiglas bubble that surrounds the frame as well.
If you can survive the crowds and the heat/humidity the result is that you see the works less well than if you’d looked at a well-printed (in China!) book.
How about this idea for virtual reality then: Tour of the Hermitage or Tour of the Louvre. The museums could shut down for a week in the winter, remove all of the protective glass, and then dolly around with a cluster of high-resolution cameras. After that anyone with appropriate VR equipment could get a far better experience of the museum than any real-world visitor. There would be no crowds, no heat, no humidity, no glass over the best paintings. There would be no tired feet, no thirst, no hunting for a bathroom. For the big churches maybe you could fly up and take a close look at a stained glass window or at least climb up as many levels as desired without breaking a sweat.
If Google can map nearly all of the world’s streets surely it can’t cost that much to map the interior of even the largest museum.
Bonus feature… photos of the Louvre, Versailles, and the Hermitage as actually experienced by a tourist today. Note that the Hermitage crowds are smaller than typical due to the fact that we were on a guided tour allowed to enter the museum 1.5 hours earlier than individuals and, as it happened, we were the very first group admitted that day.
Phil, Google Earth (I think) already has 360-degree scanned the Louvre, the Prado in Madrid, several American art museums, etc. I don’t think they do VR googles (yet, if ever), but am told, and have seen low-res samples of, that the quality is excellent. The halls are of course empty, and one can zoom in as close as needed… I don’t remember the resolution it was scanned at but it’s definitely over 4K. It also requires pretty fast, wide band, uninterruptible IP line for smooth sailing through the halls, and a good quality large-size monitor (which I do not have). It’s been around for a couple of years now. I don’t think they will ever do your variant of VR-remotely controllable dollies, also because of the risk of one VR-Phil trying to pick up another VR-Phil while DSM isn’t looking (somebody has to think about those things!).
I will do a bit of research and come back with another valuable pointer to arts-connoisseur-for-a-day. Other than that, I share your sentiment and visit only non-marquee Paris museums, such as the Musée d’Orsay, and never in high season. This constant tourist overload is also the reason why I gave up on the desire to see Macchu Picchu IRL – not when I’d have to share it with say 10 bussloads per hour of chatty-beyond-reason Americans. I will find a few good quality DVDs from there, and that’s it. Or maybe visit it in Google Earth?
Not quite the same as a VR tour, but whenever I hear someone is interested in the Hermitage I always recommend the movie “Russian Ark” – an amazing movie set in the Hermitage museum and all filmed in a single shot. I believe it’s streaming on Netflix and well worth your time if you’re interested in Russian history or art.
Google’s “art project” has a lot of museums and other places of interest, but no Louvre, I think, which was just as crowded for us in March 15 years ago. I preferred Musee d’Orsay:
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/partner/musee-dorsay-paris
And you can zoom in and see the texture:
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/starry-night/uQE3XORhSK37Dw
Here’s the app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.cultural
Not sure if it is compatible with VR rigs.
for Versailles, similar to Mark’s Hermitage suggestion, watch Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” film for gorgeous, close-up views of le palais, le Grand et le Petit Trianon and le Hameau de la Reine. Until this VR takes off, there is the off-season, when the National Gallery of Art here in Washington is nearly bereft of visitors. Try a Tuesday at 1 pm in early December as all the school groups have already departed, and there are a limited number of tourists due to impending Xmas/New Year’s period.
A modern TV can show 3840×2160. The Occulus Rift does only 1080×1200 for a lot more money. They never could match the quality of a TV for the price, no matter how high the buyout valuation.
resolution will improve… Probably more exciting would be to get gelsight 2.5d lifts of the paintings with super accurate color. That can image even the forensic art on currency meant for only microscopes to see. Once you have that you can put the art in any situation.
I think I know a guy at google that was working on this. https://www.google.com/edu/expeditions/
Forget the Louvre – its too crowded, too large, and frankly not that great. The spectacular Musee D’Orsay is better and more accessible. Buying a museum pass ahead of time allows you to skip the lines and enter through the side entrance.
Even better for Monet lovers: the L’Orangerie is right between the Louvre and D’Orsay and has very few visitors, but it is small.
Best of all for Monet lovers: take the subway West to Musée Marmottan Monet. It has the most famous Monet paintings in an amazing private mansion turned gallery.
You can visit Angkor Wat with Google on a big screen
http://kortlink.dk/mwkh
But even with the bad toilets and the bad tourists, I prefer the real thing. Even if the resolution doubled or tripled, I’d prefer the real thing.
That said, yes, I too shun huge tourist attractions in their peak season/hours. And yes, VR exploring is set to get a lot more exciting than the Google Earth stuff above.