Art in the landscape: geo-locating the Tate’s national collection

Art in the landscape

 

Tate holds the national collection of British art dating from 1500, and international art from 1900 – around 68,000 works in all. About one-third of the collection has been indexed according to the locations of the sites depicted in the works, some quite specifically, but in many cases referring only to a city, region or major geographical feature. For the Art Maps project, Tate worked with CICT’s Professor Gabriella Giannachi to create web and mobile apps that allow users to explore artworks in the collection in relation to the places, sites, landscapes and environments that informed or led to their geotagging.

Not only does the project improve the quality of the geographical data relating to these works – with members of the public contributing information about the specifics of the imagery and viewpoint used or associated sites – it also allows people to record and share their memories and emotional or creative responses to the places associated with the artworks in ways that generate learning experiences and create new communities.

Art Maps was shown at Tate Britain from February to June 2013. The project was a collaboration between Tate and University of Exeter, with Derek McAuley (Director at Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, and Chief Innovation Officer at Connected Digital Economy Catapult) and Computer Scientists at the University of Nottingham.