Monday, July 29, 2019

"The Great Wave: what Hokusai’s masterpiece tells us about museums, copyright and online collections today"

Open Glam:
Today, print impressions of ‘The Great Wave’, each one subtly different in colour and tone, can be found in museum collections around the world

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So how do museums holding an impression of Hokusai’s iconic work make it available? To find out, let’s compare fourteen cultural institutions that have digitised and published their ‘Great Wave’ online.

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The Art Institute of Chicago’s collections website makes the process incredibly simple: clicking once on the download icon triggers the download of a high-resolution image.

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In contrast, undertaking the same process on the British Museum’s website entails mandatory user registration and the submission of personal data.

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It’s as if these institutions have unconsciously revived the concept of zôhan (possession of blocks) for the 21st century.
*Previously: "The Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Very Litigious Bikini"