Big Art Mob

The Big Art Mob is an effort to create a comprehensive survey of public art in the form of a mobile blog. A project only just begun in the UK, the Big Art Mob hopes to build this database via photos from cameras or mobile phones, taken by anyone who cares to snap a shot. Using a combination of Google Maps, a geo-coding facility, and tags (labels or keywords, created by the senders and viewers), the photos and moblog posts will eventually (and hopefully) create an interactive map that serves to preserve the country’s wealth of public art. Big Art Mob will also serve as a debate forum; thanks to the user-generated nature of the public art that is uploaded, the classic argument over “What is Art?” will likely pop up on a daily basis. My fingers are crossed that street artists are allowed use this tool to preserve their pieces – because how great would it be to have a dated photo documentary of one wall’s changes over a years or two? Big Art Mob is the precursor to a new television series called Big Art Project, which I don’t know to much about but am hoping is at least half as amazing as “Planet Earth.” More details here.