Google experiments with art and science

Verdict

In true Google fashion, the search giant has created two innovative brand experiences, which hold their own as legitimate creative installations and physical exhibitions.

Google has opted to show off the power of the internet by encroaching on the physical realm with Web Labs and This Exquisite Forest, and prove it is more than just a search engine. This is part of a broader strategic push by Google to flex its content muscle as it works to position itself as content facilitator and creator as evident in other Google content plays such as Think with Google and Google Quarterly.

Both experiences appeal to completely different audiences. With Web Labs, Google is going squarely for computer science and technology lovers, it’s geek-factor is high, the experiments are cool and the computer scientists, developers and general technophiles will love it. Meanwhile This Exquisite Forest appeals to the artistic types, digital artists, animators, designers etc.

In two exhibitions Google hits the two audiences, which are crucial to its future relevance as more than a search engine. In showing these audiences how to use Chrome to create and develop it, Google aims to define the brand as a companion to experimentation and creation.

It’s savvy work taking exhibitions into the digital realm and allowing them to be ‘always on’ online for consumers to enjoy at their leisure. Google have also facilitated a physical space to enjoy the digital world – I’m not a fan of the buzz word phydigital (which refers to combining the physical with digital) but that’s exactly what Google have done.

Most significantly it shows a brilliant strategy to get people to experience the Chrome platform. Both exhibitions use Chrome tools, so to properly experience the exhibitions you need to use Chrome. Chrome is one of those platforms that once you experience it, you probably won’t go back to another platform, so getting people to use it, by way of visiting the exhibitions and experiencing how superior it is, is just genius, plain and simple.

Review

The experiential element of these installations are what sets them apart. Google has superbly blurred the line between the physical and digital experiences enabling the user to fully immerse in the experience in either environment. Linking the quality of the users experience of that exhibition to the Chrome platform is just genius.