You've been framed.

January 9, 2018 10:34 PM

The (free) Google Arts and Culture app was already pretty awesome but now it can find portraits in museums that look just like you.
posted by storybored (30 comments total)

Participate now, while uploading your biometrics to Google is still optional!
posted by darksasami at 10:50 PM on January 9, 2018 [23 favorites]

I figure they already had it, so I said 'what the hell'. The best three matches aren't that good, but the fourth is actually... very, scarily accurate.
posted by codacorolla at 10:55 PM on January 9, 2018 [5 favorites]

I don’t see the option in the app. Is it something I’m overlooking?
posted by frimble at 10:56 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's like a feed kinda thing. I scrolled down a bit, and there was a button for it. You then sign away your immortal soul, snap a piccy, and Google's information processing daemon takes care of the rest.
posted by codacorolla at 11:00 PM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Huh. Not there for me. Wonder if it’s because of my location.
posted by frimble at 11:26 PM on January 9, 2018

Yeah, not showing up for me either.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:26 PM on January 9, 2018

> darksasami:
"Participate now, while uploading your biometrics to Google is still optional!"

Pretty much my point I came here to make. Google already knows TOO much about me. I am not making it easier for them.
posted by Samizdata at 11:34 PM on January 9, 2018

Black Mirror pitch: the day everyone using this app gets the same result, Munch’s The Scream
posted by roger ackroyd at 11:46 PM on January 9, 2018 [29 favorites]

Wasn't showing up for me in Australia, turned my VPN on and set it to San Francisco and it appeared so yeah I think you probably have to be stateside
posted by Panthalassa at 12:51 AM on January 10, 2018

Haha... so, that kinda indicates that they're juking certain EU and AUS privacy laws with whatever the actual motivation of this thing is, right?
posted by codacorolla at 1:13 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Might also have something to do with copyright? Not sure. I think Australian copyright law is very unpermissive.

Anyway this was fun lol
posted by Panthalassa at 1:20 AM on January 10, 2018

Damnit.

OK, so apparently my region is locked out of this, that was a joke. Still, this is a pretty cool app I was previously unaware of, so I still consider it a win. Thanks!
posted by Literaryhero at 2:00 AM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Aww, I also downloaded it before realising it doesn't work for my region.
posted by easternblot at 4:16 AM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Canada, here, and I couldn't find it either :-/
posted by Paladin1138 at 4:16 AM on January 10, 2018

so, as a person of color who is also aware of the dearth of representation of my race in "fine" art, I assume this app is going to be another round of "All Look Same" ?
posted by bl1nk at 4:46 AM on January 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

I tried this a few times. The only ones scoring over 50% are the boy in the bottom right corner of this, at 54%

and this, at 53%, is the only one that came up every time.

A ~50% resemblance is no resemblance, really.
posted by tel3path at 4:50 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

The best this white male of European descent got on multiple tries was 43%, and IMHO none of them really looked like me. The Mindy Kaling match in TFA was a lot better match.
posted by achrise at 5:41 AM on January 10, 2018

I was signed in through PIA connected to Chicago and didn't get the option. I switched to New York City and it appeared.

Apparently I look like Frances Teresa Stuart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, in Male Costume. Or one of Queen Charlotte's children, or a self-portrait of John Steuart Curry. I've tried four pictures and those are the ones that keep coming up.

With a grouchier face apparently I look like Henry VIII.
posted by Foosnark at 5:50 AM on January 10, 2018

I used Picasa, and currently use Google Photos. They've got my visage 100times over.

I'd be huge in the Netherlands
Round Faced Bearded Dude #4155
posted by DigDoug at 5:54 AM on January 10, 2018

so, as a person of color who is also aware of the dearth of representation of my race in "fine" art, I assume this app is going to be another round of "All Look Same"?

The article includes images of several famous women of color, and I think they got better matches than I, a fairly nondescript white dude. I'm clean-shaven, and it keeps giving me beardos as my best matches.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:42 AM on January 10, 2018

Black Mirror pitch: the day everyone using this app gets the same result, Munch’s The Scream

Or Saturn devouring his children.
posted by orrnyereg at 7:10 AM on January 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

I can't try this as I don't have an iPhone. But I have been told, not inaccurately, that I look like portraits of Alexander Pushkin.
posted by aws17576 at 7:27 AM on January 10, 2018

My best match is only blocks away from my apartment! Maybe I'll pay her a visit.
posted by mosst at 10:04 AM on January 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I tried it from several angles and several expressions - Google is fixated on my apparent resemblance to Eleanor Roosevelt (so flattering, thanks Google). I don't see it at all, but you know, I do see a close resemblance between the portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt chosen and my grandmother. Google is showing me how I will look as I age, which is sort of creepy in a different way than intended.
posted by DSime at 10:34 AM on January 10, 2018

Here's another site that does the same.
posted by GeorgeBickham at 2:31 PM on January 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ooh! GeorgeBickham, I like your site better.

Much much better.
posted by tel3path at 3:54 PM on January 10, 2018

I can't try this as I don't have an iPhone.

I'm on android 8.1. Downloaded the app just now and it works.

I did a front photo, 3/4 view, and profile, and the only consistent match is from this pamphlet (the center left face), which is a cartoon of what I assume is a black woman. The joke among my friends that I (a straight asian man) am a lesbian on the inside with a preference for black women is coming full circle.
posted by numaner at 10:29 PM on January 10, 2018

Here's another site that does the same.

that one gave me this, which I guess is better?
posted by numaner at 10:38 PM on January 10, 2018

Google app worked if VPNed out of New York but not California for me... I got nothing close to 50%.
posted by jadepearl at 4:51 AM on January 11, 2018

Google has already prompted me to tell them which face in my uploaded photos is mine, which I declined to do. This seems a very clever way to induce people to volunteer their faces for Google's facial recognition work.
posted by Existential Dread at 9:38 PM on January 13, 2018