ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss how Google frames users’ cultural participation on Google Cultural Institute, and how the cultural politics of the archive revoke discussions on cultural participation within the field of cultural policy. The digital archive brings forward logics and cultural policy discourses that emphasize creativity, user engagement and user interaction. Seen from this perspective, digital archives potentially turn users into active participants and co-creators. However, cultural participation in digital archives leaves lasting traces of data. This chapter looks further into how Google Cultural Institute discursively frames its collaboration with established museums and cultural institutions, which kind of participative potentials the archive offers to users and what the price users pay for interacting with the archive. In order to do this, this chapter applies a platform analysis of selected projects facilitated by Google Cultural Institute and how these are encapsulated in the wider frameworks of the cultural politics of Google. This entails focussing on Google’s privacy policy and terms of service and how these outline the cooperation between Google, established cultural institutions and users.
