Smithsonian Digitizes 40,000 Artworks from Asia

[Skidmore]

For art lovers, a new resource:

http://hyperallergic.com/169930/the-smithsonian-has-digitized-40000-artworks-from-asia/

Beginning today, art lovers around the world can peruse the entire collections of two Smithsonian Asian art museums from the comfort of their homes. The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery have digitized 40,000 artworks, many of which have never been seen. These include ancient Chinese jades and bronzes, Islamic art, Chinese paintings and ancient Persian and Egyptian artifacts. If the physical objects were lined up in a row, they would stretch 1,000 feet, but their digital versions consume only 10 terabytes of data.

[sofa king]

1. That is so awesome.

I doubt many of you know this, but the Freer Gallery was set up under an unusual trust provision which provided the Gallery with nearly inexhaustible acquisition funds, but only a modestly sized one-floor museum in which to display its acquisitions.

When I was there, decades ago, it was already calculated by the staff that the museum could be completely changed out every day for years before all of its acquisitions could be shown. The Freer is built like a stack of pancakes underground, with one above-ground level, one level leading to the Sackler (an end run around the trust which allowed for the display of more items), and six more warehouse levels of priceless boxed up shit that nobody can see.

And some of the shit that the Freer and Sackler has is truly priceless. In the 1970s, one researcher discovered not one but half a dozen ancient metal tools which were hewn from the same meteorite in China--all of them "discovered" in the Freer basement. Samples of those tools have since allowed planetary scientists to learn a lot about the asteroids before we even visit one.

Digitization seems to be the only way to get the information back to we the people--to whom it belongs, dammit!--and the people from whom we stole it or bought it for a song.

[Skidmore]

2. Thanks for that bit of information.

I love that hte internet is allowing people to share and learn about so much that was unavailable to them because of exclusivity or the fact that many cannot afford to travel extensively or afford to pay for the type of educations that would allow them to study intensively at university level.

[sofa king]

3. Absolutely.

Keep in mind that my authority on this matter is limited only to a brief time as the lowest possible level of employee, so I heard a lot of stories but didn't actually see very much of it going on. I was not permitted in the lower levels and I never once thought of trying to get down there.

But I did talk to dozens of researchers who were bouncing about the exhibit levels, like dogs scratching at a sliding glass door while a sumptuous dinner waits, forever out of reach, just inside. For one or two of them, this could be the breakthrough moment of their academic careers.

(I should also mention that 40,000 works is probably nothing compared to the overall number of works the Freer holds. They're bullshitting about it, too, which is annoying. As of right now, the Freer's info page claims that it holds a total of only 26,000 works. Yet they just released 40,000 digitized objects.)

[Omaha Steve]

4. Awesome

K&R!