Impact Case Studies

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ArtMaps explores the relation between art and place, through
the development of a crowdsourcing platform that allows
people to ‘put themselves in the picture’ , and to contribute
their knowledge about locations associated with artworks. The
platform uses existing geographical data on works of art to map and
visualise them in relation to locations in the real world. ArtMaps is a
collaborative project involving Horizon Digital Economy Research,
the Centre for Intermedia at the University of Exeter, and Tate (Tate
Learning, Tate Digital and Tate Research).
Approximately one-third of the Tate Galleries collection, comprising
almost 70,000 artworks, has been indexed with information about
locations, typically the site represented in the work. For some
artworks this information is quite specific (e.g. exact latitude and
longitude of the landmark/site depicted in the work), but in many
cases it is quite general, referring only to a city, region or major
geographic feature. The ArtMaps project aims to improve the quality
of the geographic data relating to these works, with members of
the public contributing information, as well as to gain new insights
into how people use technology to generate novel location-based
interactions with their environment through art, and with art through
their personal associations.
The ArtMaps platform has been successfully used to design and
support several engagement events targeted at different audiences
(e.g. families with children; migrants; elderly; on-line public). John
Stack, formerly Head of Digital at Tate, highlights: “The ArtMaps
project is shaping how we think about the role of the museum as
a platform for audience engagement and the issues raised by the
project are proving to be fundamental for our work in the years
ahead.
“The ArtMaps project and its research questions has coincided
with a wider transition at Tate from audience interaction being a
marginal activity to one that is informing much of our thinking about
the future of the organisation. The museum of the future is not
just a place where objects related to cultural heritage are cared for
and displayed. It is a platform where new ideas and meanings are
generated, exchanged and preserved, and digital technologies will
likely be key to enabling this.”
The project findings show that ArtMaps facilitates access to people
who do not habitually visit museums, extends the gallery experience
outside the museum, allows for encounters with items not ordinarily
on display, stimulates collaboration and group discussion, facilitates
mobile learning and, through crowdsourcing, potentially produces
valuable and original knowledge for the museum. “By opening new
opportunities to engage the public in novel ways such as Web-based
interactions and outdoor experiences, ArtMaps takes the museum
out of its walls” added Laura Carletti, Horizon Research Fellow.
“In fact ArtMaps promotes a new way of looking at art through its
relationships with places, and, vice versa, facilitates the perception of
places through their relationship with art.”
ArtMaps is an open source platform and freely available to be
repurposed.
For further information, please contact:
Dr Laura Carletti
Email:
Web:
ArtMaps: Exploring the relation between art and place
“By opening new
opportunities to engage
the public in novel ways
such as Web-based
interactions and outdoor
experiences, ArtMaps
takes the museum out
of its walls”