by Jeremy Miller | 31 December 2010 | Current Events, Museums, Teaching
A post from earlier this month on the Getty’s blog points out some curiosities about how some artworks get viewed online more frequently than others. No surprise that Van Gogh takes first place. However, it is interesting that numbers two (Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime by Pierre Paul Prud’hon, 1805-06) and three (Two Women Embracing by Unknown Photographer, 1847-53) on the Getty’s most-viewed list seem to have been found by viewers primarily by looking for other things. I wonder if the total numbers for Prud’hon and our anonymous artist are greater than Van Gogh. I also wonder, optimistically, if those who found the Getty by accident spent time browsing other images in the Getty collection, or perhaps have since returned to do so.
Inevitable changes to the relative accessibility of information on the web, including differing standards for fixed-line versus mobile access, seem to be on the horizon. How will this alter the way students (and others) find art images online, including what they find, how easy it is to find what they are looking for, and the role of serendipitous discovery? Would those who stumbled upon the Getty’s images while searching for something else have found them at all if the forthcoming regulations had long been in place? How will museums and other art institutions continue to vie for web visibility?
