X Degrees of Separation
X DEGREES OF SEPARATION is one of Google Arts & Culture Experiments, part of the GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE platform. The project presents a an exploratory visualisation aimed at revealing the hidden paths within visual culture. By analysing the visual features of thousands of artworks, machine learning techniques allow visual pathways between any two images to be found.
Users can pick any two images from the collections, and the algorithm links them through a chain of other artefacts in between: This should gradually show the passage from the visual characteristics of the former image chosen to the features of the latter one.
The unexpected connections and surprising combinations deriving from the process, especially when the two selected images are extremely different from one another, put diversity and serendipity at the core of the experiment, in which famous artworks are often mixed and related to the images of unknown artists and mundane objects.