Now Anyone Can Visit Iraq’s National Museum - Thanks Google!

December 3, 2009

When Google does something, it does it big. Remember Google maps? People thought, “But there are other websites that show me maps.” Sure there are, but do those websites show a satellite view that you can zoom in to the point where you can see the actual building of the address you’re looking up? No. Then they came up with Gmail. People wondered, “But what’s wrong with my Hotmail or Yahoo account?” I’ll tell you. Your conversation is all over the place, but Gmail’s got you threaded. So when Google announced it will be creating a virtual copy of Iraq’s National Museum, and someone said, “But Italy’s National Research Center has already done that,” Eric Schmidt should have responded, “But they haven’t done it like this.”

Google, which is creating the site on its own expense, plans to collaborate with 100 scientists, computer technicians and historians to create a realistic tour of the museums halls, rather than a typical virtual visit. In addition, they will digitize as many artifacts as possible. Talk about awesome.

The project aims to solve the museum’s current problem of inaccessibility. Iraq’s National Museum has been declared reopened 3 times since the beginning of the war but none of the openings involved allowing the public back in – mostly scholars and journalists. Only 8 out of the 26 galleries have been restored and the museum is still recovering from being badly looted during the onslaught of violence. Furthermore, a part of the museum’s structure has been destroyed by a suicide bomb. Google anticipates launching the site by early next year so that people can view artifacts while the museum continues to rebuild.

But Google’s mission to digitize art spawns a lot of controversy. Some people fear that digitizing museums will significantly decrease their number of visitors, but I beg to differ. Images can never capture the beauty of the actual artifacts and there will always be people who want to experience art in real life instead of a virtual world. I’ve seen hundreds of images of artwork online or in books and I’ve still gone to see them in museums or galleries. But that could be the art student in me talking. What do you think? Would you still physically visit a museum if you’ve already seen its artifacts online?

Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images