Google and Getty team up for pictures worth a thousand links

You’ve seen that painting before but can’t remember: Is it Manet or Monet? Once again, when it comes to the searchable world, Google wants to supply the answer.

The team behind Google Goggles, the smartphone application that among other things lets users take a photograph of a bottle of wine to find out whether it's worth $10 or $100, has partnered with the Getty Museum to provide information on hundreds of paintings from its permanent collection.

Google Goggles is at base a visual search engine that is activated not by typing in key phrases but by taking a picture on your smartphone of the object (be it a wine bottle label or book or historic landmark) in question. They call it a “visual query.” Now Getty visitors using the program can take pictures of paintings that interest them to bring up links to information, starting with content prepared by the museum.

More effective with two than three dimensions, Google Goggles already recognizes some photographs and paintings from other museums—including world-famous artworks the database has picked up by crawling the Internet. But this is the first partnership by which a museum has provided images and prepared content for this specific use. The Getty has supplied information on the artist and artwork for about 300 paintings. About half of those have audio snippets as well.

Google Goggles product manager Shailesh Nalawadi, whose engineering team is based in the technology giant's Santa Monica office, says they wanted to start local. "We always had the museum use-case in mind," he says, "and because the engineering team is here in Los Angeles, we wanted to do it with an L.A. institution."

Hammer Museum introduces new mobile application

On your next visit to the Hammer Museum, don't be surprised to find more people fiddling with their iPhones than actually looking at the art hanging on the walls. That's because the Hammer has joined the growing list of art institutions to launch their own mobile applications.

The Hammer's app, which is available for free download for iPhones and Android devices, provides audio guides, videos, interviews, images of artwork and more for visitors to the museum.

The Hammer said that the content provided on the app will be expanded in future versions. The present version features content about the current exhibition on artist Richard Hawkins, as well as upcoming shows devoted to Ed Ruscha and Paul Thek.

In addition, the app provides background information on the Armand Hammer collection.

Other museums that have already launched mobile apps include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

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-- David Ng

Photo (top): A screen from the Hammer Museum's mobile app for iPhones. Credit: Hammer Museum / Apple

Photo (bottom): Richard Hawkins, "Crepuscule #1," 1994, mixed media. Credit: Hammer Museum

Hollywood Bowl gets its own smartphone app

Just in time for summer -- not to mention the launch of Apple's iPhone 4 -- the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. is introducing a phone application designed to help you make the most of visits to the Hollywood Bowl.

The free app offers a detailed look at the season's shows and performers and allows users to buy tickets and add concerts to a favorites list in order to receive reminders and special announcements.

The "Hollywood Bowl" application also explains how to get to the venue by car or shuttle and what to do once there. On phones with GPS the app will offer driving directions and pinpoint seat locations as well as the nearest restrooms, concessions and picnic areas. App users also can view Bowl-related videos and a fan photo gallery to which they can submit their own pictures.

An L.A. Philharmonic spokeswoman says the application, which was developed by Santa Monica-based MeemleLabs, is available for all Android phones and iPhones and is compatible with iOS 4 -- Apple's new mobile operating system. It will be available for BlackBerrys and the mobile web starting in July.

The Phil says it's always trying to improve mobile service for all users on its 110-acre grounds. For this season, it has been working with AT&T, the spokeswoman says, "so you can enjoy using the 'Hollywood Bowl' app at the Bowl and beyond."

Last fall, the Philharmonic Assn. celebrated the arrival of music director Gustavo Dudamel by launching its first iPhone app and online game, "Bravo Gustavo,"  in which users can "conduct" the Phil in excerpts from Berlioz and Mahler.

-- Karen Wada

Photo: The Hollywood Bowl opened its 2010 summer season with fireworks on June 18. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

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Putting the 'Mac' into Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

It's widely considered rude to be playing with your iPhone during a theatrical performance -- unless the actors are doing the same thing.

A group of stage performers in San Francisco is producing a reading of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in which they will enact the drama by reading the text from their personal iPhones and iPod Touch devices. To make the experience more communal, the audience is invited to read along by downloading a special Shakespeare application that contains the full play.

The event -- which will take place Oct. 25 at the Apple Store in San Francisco at 1 Stockton St. near Union Square -- is organized by actor Ron Severdia, who runs the website playshakespeare.com.

Last year, Severdia launched an iPhone application that contains all of Shakespeare's plays as well as his poems and sonnets. The program, which was developed by the company Readdle, is available for free download from iTunes and features a keyword search function as well as auto-scroll capabilities. 

"It's not a profit-generating thing. It's a loss generator, actually. But it's done out of the love of the work," said Severdia in a phone interview.

The actor said he first chose "Macbeth" for the obvious pun on the Apple brand of Mac computers. "That was the original joke and it sort of stuck," he said.

The performance, which is free, will feature 13 actors performing 40 different roles in the Scottish tragedy.

Severdia said he and his tech team are putting the finishing touches on a new version of the application that will have features like finding the nearest Shakespeare festival using GPS; searching by line numbers; and a new interface. He expects the new version to cost $1.99 to download.

-- David Ng

Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

Monster Mash: Gap co-founder Donald Fisher dies; MoMA's surprise gift; Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig keep their cool

-- Arts patron: Donald Fisher, the co-founder of Gap Inc. and an important art collector, has passed away at age 81, just days after agreeing to leave his collection to SFMOMA.

-- Big earners: Glenn Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art and Peter Gelb of the Metropolitan Opera are among the top-earning executives of nonprofit organizations in a survey from USA Today.

-- Major windfall: Details emerge about a surprise gift of more than $10 million to MoMA by a man from Vermont.

-- Still talking: Chazz Palminteri is taking his one-man show, "A Bronx Tale," to the Venetian in Las Vegas for a limited engagement in October.

-- Cultural booster: Michelle Obama talks about the importance of the arts at the Pittsburgh G-20 summit.

-- Art controversy: The Tate Modern in London is scheduled to re-create an exhibition that was criticized as racist when a version appeared in New York.

-- Big stars: The Sydney Theatre Company's 2010 season will include William Hurt, Philip Seymour Hoffman and co-artistic director Cate Blanchett.

-- Going high-tech: The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is offering visitors an iPhone application to access information about the painter.

-- Masterpieces for sale: The town of Southampton in Britain finds itself in the middle of an art deaccessioning debate.

-- Be afraid: David Cronenberg is in talks to remake his 1986 film "The Fly." An opera version produced in L.A. last year -- and directed by Cronenberg -- was panned by critics.

-- Keeping cool: Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig stay professional when a cellphone twice interrupts a performance of "A Steady Rain" on Broadway.

-- David Ng

Photo: Gap co-founder and arts patron Donald Fisher. Credit: Gap

Conduct online (or on your iPhone) with Gustavo Dudamel

We can dream but chances are most of us will never get the opportunity to take the podium at Walt Disney Concert Hall to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Online, however, you can be whomever you want to be. In fact, the L.A. Philharmonic has recently launched an Internet game / simulation that allows you to "conduct" alongside its new music director, Gustavo Dudamel.

As anyone with experience in live music knows, it's all about the cues. The Web game, titled "Bravo Gustavo," asks you to use your keyboard to hit the cues for Berlioz’s "Symphonie Fantastique," performed by the L.A. Phil conducted by Dudamel. (The music is courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.)

Players must hit the cues for the string, woodwind, brass and percussion sections. Points are awarded for accuracy and speed.

You can play the game at www.laphil.com/gustavo/game/ or you can download the game to your iPhone. According to the orchestra, the iPhone application adapts the mobile device into a virtual conducting baton that uses the accelerometer to "directly affect the overall tempo and note duration of the music – just like a real conductor."

The game, which was created by the company Hello Design, is part of the new "microsite" that the orchestra has just launched to promote the arrival of Dudamel.

-- David Ng

Photo: Hector Berlioz. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Monster Mash: Annie Leibovitz still negotiating loan repayment; Jordan Roth takes over Jujamcyn Theaters; iPhone becomes popular musical toy

-- In talks: Photographer Annie Leibovitz is reportedly still negotiating with her creditor, Art Capital, after a deadline passed on Tuesday to repay her $24-million loan.

-- Moving up: Jordan Roth is taking over as head of Broadway's Jujamcyn Theaters, succeeding Rocco Landesman who was appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

-- Search is on: San Diego Museum of Art has named four interim leaders as it looks for a permanent replacement for Derrick Cartwright.

-- Digital sounds: Musicians are finding a lot to love about several instrumental applications designed for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. 

-- Setting a date: The 2010 Tony Awards will take place on June 13 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

-- Honored: Director Mel Brooks, opera singer Grace Bumbry, actor Robert De Niro and musician Bruce Springsteen will receive the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.

-- Legal wrangling: Jewish heirs have settled a seven-year dispute with a Swedish museum over an Emil Nolde painting that was looted by the Nazis.  

-- Shipping news: A proposed cargo port in Venice, Italy, is prompting criticism from preservationists.

-- All about him: Singer-pianist Michael Feinstein is headed for Broadway in "All About Me."

-- Lifeline: The financially troubled Pittsburgh Symphony receives a $1-million gift from its board chairman.

-- Dance on film: Members of the New York City Ballet work to create a screen version of Jerome Robbins' "N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz."

-- David Ng

Photo: Annie Leibovitz. Credit: Associated Press

The soloists

At the Bard College Music Festival last weekend in New York, the college’s president and festival director Leon Botstein made a striking remark about Richard Wagner and his cronies. “If we used our standards of normalcy on the 19th century,” he said during a panel discussion about Wagner and the Jewish question, “historians wouldn’t be left with much worth remembering.”

I thought about that Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl. Yo-Yo Ma played Dvorák’s Cello Concerto and my guest was another cellist, Nathaniel Ayers, whose story Steve Lopez has told meaningfully in this newspaper and in his book, “The Soloist.” (The motion picture version came out this month on DVD, but save your money.)  Ayers' life has not been normal, having gone from New York’s elite Juilliard School to the streets of L.A.’s skid row.

I’m told Ayers has periods when his demons are kept at bay and those when they are not. On Tuesday he was fine company. He was excited about hearing Ma and Dvorák. Members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic came by the box to greet him. He was ushered to the head of the line of well-wishers backstage at intermission to visit with Ma, who happened to have been a Juilliard classmate of Ayers. They hugged, even though, Ayers told me, Ma was quite sweaty.

Mostly what impressed me was the intensity with which Ayers listened. He knows the concerto and plays it all the time (some of that time on the street). During the performance, he noticeably absorbed every phrase, as one with the music as was the other soloist on stage.

Monster Mash: LACMA film program gets stay of execution; Stew talks about L.A. indie rock; Seattle's public-art mystery

-- Will it be enough? LACMA receives $150,000 toward its film program that had been scheduled to close in October and that will now run through June.

-- Hometown boy: Tony winner Stew discusses his L.A. roots and the new film adaptation of his musical "Passing Strange."

-- New leadership: The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M., has named Robert A. Kret as its new director, replacing George King.

-- Public art conundrum: A mysterious guerrilla-art statute has appeared in Seattle's Gas Works Park. 

-- High-tech companion: The Brooklyn Museum has launched a guided-tour iPhone application with a twist.

-- Expect a Brechtian touch: Tony-winning director John Doyle is scheduled to direct a revival of Chekhov's "Three Sisters" at the Cincinnati Playhouse in October. 

-- Jet-set destination: Is Athens the next hot spot for the international contemporary art scene?

-- Un scandale: A theater in Nice, France, is producing a new play based on the 2008 scandal involving Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel, who lost billions of euros for the company because of rogue trading practices.

-- Mad about art: German artist Daniel Richter recently led a protest in Hamburg in which nearly 200 artists occupied a building scheduled for demolition.

-- Role of a lifetime: Christopher Plummer will return to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival next season to take the role of Prospero in "The Tempest," directed by Des McAnuff.

-- Record attendance: A Frank Lloyd Wright retrospective has proved to be a box-office bonanza for New York's Guggenheim Museum.

-- David Ng

Photo: A scene from Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket," a LACMA favorite. Credit: New Yorker Films/Criterion Collection

What does this painting sound like?

Jackson Pollock's "Cathedral" (1947), shown left, is a riot of yellows, greens, blacks and whites executed in the painter's trademark drip style.

But what does it sound like?

It's a speculative, maybe even silly question. But the Dallas Museum of Art and students at the University of Texas at Dallas have embarked on a project to answer it as best they can.

Their efforts -- lead by Frank DuFour, who teaches a sound design class at UTD -- have resulted in a series of digital soundscapes to accompany specific works in the museum's collection.

Visitors can listen to the soundtracks using their iPhones or other hand-held Internet devices. (The museum has about 20 iPhones available to check out.) Each musical clip lasts anywhere from 40 seconds to more than a minute.

Seven works are featured in the project: Pollock's "Cathedral"; Frederic Edwin Church's painting "The Icebergs" (1861); a Roman mosaic titled "Orpheus Taming Wild Animals"; an ancient statue of the Mexican rain god Tlaloc; an Indonesian "protective" sculpture; a Japanese sculpture from the 16th or 17th century titled "Emma-O"; and a pair of Tiffany Windows.

The museum is rolling out the project as part of a larger effort called "Bonus Features" to help visitors engage with art via hand-held technology, including short videos that feature curators and other added information.

So what do the soundscapes sound like? For Pollock's "Cathedral," one student mixed jazz and electronic music (a solo trumpet figures prominently) with the sound of dripping paint. 

For "The Icebergs," the museum features two soundscapes: a musical track with strings and a solo piano (think Brian Eno meets Ryuichi Sakamoto), and an abstract track that evokes the sounds of the ocean and a creaking wooden vessel.

The museum says that it hopes to apply the same technology to two upcoming exhibitions -- one dealing with Impressionism and French photography, and another with coastlines and other bodies of water.

You can listen to the soundtracks for "Cathedral" and "The Icebergs" here.

-- David Ng

Photo: Jackson Pollock's "Cathedral" (1947). Credit: Dallas Museum of Art