Art by Alison O’Grady on Esri’s digital map of street art from the Dublin Canvas public art initiative. Image: Esri Ireland
Developed by Esri Ireland, the map is part of the Dublin Canvas project that aims to promote artists to paint traffic signal boxes across the county.
There’s a new digital map of Dublin that allows people to view the city’s rich array of street art and the stories behind the artists that made them.
Created by Esri Ireland, which specialises in the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to create mapping and spatial analytics software, the digital map is part of the Dublin Canvas project that promotes street art in the city.
Dublin Canvas is a community initiative that aims to add flashes of colour to unused spaces across the county by encouraging artists of all ages to submit their artwork and stand a chance to be added to public spaces such as traffic signal boxes.
A call for submissions is made at the beginning of every spring and, after a selection process, painting takes place throughout the summer and until late autumn.
Currently, there are more than 600 pieces of artwork scattered across the county. This year, it is expected that an additional 750 pieces will be completed by the end of August.
The interactive digital map uses Esri’s ArcGIS to locate these works of art and gives people access to further information on each. Users can click on any location and see the artwork in that area along with background information on the artist and a description of the piece.
It has the potential to help artists gain recognition and boost the art scene in Dublin which, some say, has been losing its edge in the space.
Esri Ireland is part of the Esri Global Network, a privately held software company with thousands of employees globally. Using GIS tech, it helps customers record where things happen and analyse why, with the aim of providing insights and helping them make better decisions.
Dublin has seen many art projects pop up in the city in the last few months. In January, the Digital Hub commissioned a unique art project at the St Patrick’s Tower that used laser projections to explore our relationship with social media and data.
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