How to Find Your Doppelganger in a Museum
If your Facebook feed has been inundated with photos of people comparing themselves to portraits in museums this week, you are not alone. The meme started with people who actually found art themselves that turned out to be similar to them, and now has spread to people posting art images that look like them if you look at them from afar and squint a little.
If you want to get carried away but don’t want to visit the local museum, you can do magic with the Google Arts & Culture app (which is probably what all your friends do).
Available for iOS and Android, the app is loaded with art from 1,000 different museums around the world. The new feature adds the ability to search all of these archives for your images to see if you can find a match.
To find your alleged twin, download the app and scroll down the welcome page until you see the message “Is your portrait in the museum?” Fast. From there, tap “Get Started” and then the onscreen instructions will guide you to take a photo of your face (you cannot use an existing image, only the one you are currently taking).
Your mileage will be different. I had several friends who posted pictures that actually resembled them in some way. Every time I do this, regardless of my facial expression or even if I wear sunglasses, Google is convinced that I look 55% like Antonio Dongi’s “Christening”. I disagree, but I think we’re kind of similar? Maybe I’ll see it. I can definitely say that if I walked past this in the museum, I probably would not stop at all, much less stop and take a selfie.
Your portrait match will probably be as accurate as mine, but the Arts & Culture app can be a pretty good thing on your phone in general if you’re into art. Yes, you can do this portrait search, but you can also check out collections of art from around the world that you would otherwise never be able to see. The app also organizes art on a variety of topics, for example, right now you can browse the collection of Mayan art, take a tour of Italy and learn the skills of Japanese masters.
It’s a fun way to get to know the culture while you’re on the train or in line, and ultimately far more rewarding than this imperfect matching of portraits.