Art Now analyzes Instagram artwork photos to become the world’s first truly democratic and global art guide

Stockholm, March 18th, 2015/PRNewswire/- In some ways similar to Jetpac, the social travel app acquired by Google in 2014, the newly launched art guide, Art Now, also uses image recognition algorithms to analyze Instagram photos. However, instead of classifying the crowds at nightclubs and restaurants, Art Now searches for artworks at museums and galleries. By clustering photos of artwork, Art Now builds a rich, condensed and real-time index of popular and commented artworks in museum and galleries around the world.

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With its automated artwork search, Art Now has rapidly compiled the world’s largest database of publicly exhibited art. Using recent Instagram photos, Art Now has more updated information and greater coverage compared to similar services such as Google Art Project and Microsoft City Art Search. The Art Now app contains more than 131,000 unique artworks at 4,400 museums and galleries, searchable by artist, city, and museum. The Worldwide search can be used to find interesting museums at travel destinations. Conversely, the Nearby tab performs a proximity search inspiring visits to local museums. Art Now also features toplists of popular and trending artworks, museums, and other Instagram art aficionados.

Similar to Artsy, Art Now also classifies art, however, not with the intention of defining the art genome, but to make art searchable in layman’s terms. As it clusters artwork photos, Art Now also aggregates popular hashtags. The taxonomy, more redolent of the language used on Instagram than that used by art scholars, is implemented as type-ahead suggestions in the search function, making the art more accessible. Furthermore, to encourage art exploration, Art Now also uses hashtags to support casual browsing between artworks. Moreover, Art Now is not biased by paid listings or advertising, nor is the content curated in any way. The artwork commentary is that of fellow Instagram users. This makes Art Now an accessible, independent, and transparent art guide.

Most importantly, Art Now statistics are based entirely on the frequency with which Instagram users upload photos of artwork. Art Now doesn’t tell you what you should look at. It tells you what others are looking at. As such, Art Now is the world’s first truly democratic art guide.

All art explorers and museums visitors around the world are now welcome to download Art Now to find museums which feature an Edward Hopper painting; look for artworks made of neon tubing; or locate all of the balloon dogs in the world.

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Magnus Axholt
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+46-708-444-428


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