Nowadays, who doesn’t love a fun selfie? Snapchat and Instagram were two of the filter OGs and now it seems that Google is jumping on the filter bandwagon too. Google Arts and Culture have combined the digital age with art history in a new app. Who wouldn’t want to transform themselves into a historical piece of art? You can do just that with their new art filter. This new filter puts users inside pieces of famous artwork by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo , Johannes Vermeer, and many others.
This new filter works by taking parts of the artists’ work and historical artifacts and putting them directly onto selfies and videos captured on a smartphone. When a user activates the filter and puts the front-facing camera on their face, the historical artwork will appear around them. The filters will also provide historical information about the artwork chosen by users, according to Art News.
The famous artworks can be looked at from different angles and the work is adjusted as the user moves around their phone. The filter works specifically through machine learning-based image processing, according to Art News. It’s encouraged that people share their art selfies and hashtag #ArtFilter.
Some of the art you can choose from include Self-Portrait with Monkey by Kahlo, a painting that is currently at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, according to Newsweek. You can insert yourself into van Gogh’s self-portrait from 1889, which is now at the Musee D‘Orsay in Paris, and Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring made in 1665, which is at the Mauritshuis in the Netherlands is another option, according to Newsweek.
In addition to emerging yourself in artwork, users of the app can also try on ancient artifacts. You can virtually try on Helmet with Tengu Mask and Crows, a Japanese artifact from the 19th century, which is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Or you can choose to wear a faience collar necklace, from Amarna, Egypt, which is on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, according to Newsweek.
The Google Arts and Culture app is free on both Apple and Android devices.
