The name’s Briggs, and I hail from Western Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Generally, I started off being a Google Local Guide, and by doing a few other things such as geocaching, playing Ingress and Pokémon Go, I love to explore my areas and look for new things people wouldn’t normally notice unless you actually pointed it out to them. It could be staring you in the face or right underneath your noses and still they wouldn’t realise it actually exists.
A lot of love comes from the street art in the Inner West near Sydney (think suburbs such as Chippendale, Newtown and Surry Hills) but whenever someone asks what’s the best place to find art in Blacktown, there’s an evident vacuum of art. Although they do exist, they just hasn’t been pointed or mapped out yet. With a growing number of Western Sydney artists adorning walls and buildings slowly in collaboration with the local councils, it was about time I took charge and show the world why Western Sydney is a place to flock to.
I’ll just leave my spiel to that ahah, but I’m glad to be working with mapping out the creativity in my hometown of Western Sydney. Cheers!
Totally cool to see you also transition into doing Street Art, so the world can see all cool stuff in the West!! Since you been on for about a month now, I was wondering what your first impressions are, and how you feel adding artworks, works for you. Anything you would wish to see improved?
Also, I used to do Ingress for a short while, love the idea and the game (and community). I would love to implement some really cool features that work there into our infrastructure. First things first tho!
Would you like some help for one of use in how to document, and how to use the platform?
Let me know how the other side of the world is doing Briggs, nice to have you here
Hey Bart! I’m doing real well.
One whole year later and I’m finally getting back into Street Art again. There’s tons of stuff that I’ve added around Western Sydney, so I’m glad to see some great artworks getting some exposure.
Probably one of the things I’d like to see is probably a condensed version of the Artworks page. At the moment it seems pretty chunky and I’d like to see a compact version that shows more. There’s a lot of padding that could be used to better glance at all existing artworks to help manage it. Maybe put two columns instead of one or change density depending on how wide the window is.
I think rather than just logging into different city management groups, it would be great to have a dropdown menu or being able to select which city I want to add a new artwork to. For example, I’ve situated Blacktown, NSW as artworks from Western Sydney, whereas anything east of say, a dividing line from Hornsby to Holsworthy would be underneath the Sydney, NSW. Or perhaps they should be merged into one whole Sydney group?
I’ll probably send an email to support/help or tech something, idk. But I’m very keen to get Sydney’s street art scene on the map and the app!
I’ve responded to your post about the login system, and like the suggestion about the artworks page. That one is due a redesign as well, so I’ll add it to my list!
In June 2020, I have added 266 new artworks all across Sydney. I’ve also started some work on the Blue Mountains, Newcastle, Wollongong (well, Shellharbour at this moment but getting there) and the capital of Australia, Canberra ACT. Let me say that the process of adding things is fantastic: it’s self-driven, has no bureaucractic process and I feel very empowered to continue contributing on the platform. So expect much more from me in the next coming weeks and months!
My pros of using the platform:
Elegant, the artworks are shown beautifully on the Street Art Cities map and has a great interface on desktop.
It’s very easy to use. Details and information can be quickly added and referenced with existing content.
Can easily start curating and contributing art in different cities at the click of a button (with upgraded functionality of switching between cities to come out sometime soon!)
Some constructive criticism:
I’d like to see the building outlines on Google Maps so I can precisely place street art where it is. Often the building footprints are the same colour as the land they’re on so I’d like to see a little bit of contrast to distinguish them. Example below: Street Art Cities map on the left, on the right is a dark version with the building outlines visible.
Less marker clustering. In my opinion, I think the artworks tend to cluster a bit too much, so I don’t think there’s any harm in letting it cluster a bit less.
At this moment, the first photo uploaded to the artwork by default becomes the front or cover photo. It would be nice to be able to select a cover photo to display unto Street Art Cities.
Legal Walls. I don’t really mind them per se. But when they look like the screenshot below, it irks me because it’s not capitalised. Please don’t mind my grammar pendantry. Also I think the ‘Visit website’ link needs a quick fix? I think there’s a colon missing: “https//www.legal-walls.net/wall/88?utm_source=api”
I have a lot of questions because I’m quite glad to contribute to something that has an active and dedicated team. But I also have a ton of suggestions that I’ll be forwarding in time, so please keep a look out for them. I really do encourage a centralised artist’s page, I have some ideas for that. I’m looking forward to the changes and improvements that Thomas has been working on.
My aim is to one day, get Sydney to Los Angeles status. Los Angeles is absolutely beautiful (especially that cover photo, I want that), and I will work smart and with heart to get Sydney’s Street Art scene on the list. But first thing’s first, get Sydney prepped and launched for the Street Art Cities app! (Note: Brisbane SAC was launched earlier this month as per this Medium article)
I’ll be starting a daily Instagram dedicated to Street Art which I’ll establish tomorrow on July 1, which will post various images that I find during my Street Art Hunts. Can’t keep it to myself, and hopefully I will get some traffic through to Street Art Cities.
That’s all from me for the meantime. Thank you for a good first month back!
