Google Arts and Culture launches Mali Magic
Together with its local partners, Google Arts and Culture identified four key pillars of Malian culture - manuscripts, music, monuments and modern art - and worked closely with local communities and experts to digitally document the country’s art, architecture, scholarship and musical tradition and share stories of its resilience in the face of political struggles with the world.
With the launch of Mali Magic, people from all over the world can view an array of manuscripts, music, art and heritage sites including over 40,000 digitised endangered manuscripts - many of which were smuggled to safety during political unrest in the country. It also contains more than 50 exhibits which include the first online, interactive tours of some of Mali’s most significant historic sites, at-risk mausoleums and mosques including the Sidi Yahiya and Djinguereber Mosques and the Tomb of Askia, all created using Street View.
Google Arts and Culture also worked with artist and musician DJ Spooky (Paul Miller) to create short videos to explore the evolution of storytelling, from West Africa to the American blues. An original album, Maliba, by Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, produced in Mali and written about the country’s cultural legacy, was created exclusively for the project. The collection also contains a wealth of videos and imagery which capture Mali’s contemporary art scene and profile some of its artists. Read More...
