5 ms·

Show HN: I mapped 30k+ paintings around the world

70 points by pzaich 13y ago

pzaich 13y ago
Rails, leaflet.js. I parsed the museum locations from http://www.the-athenaeum.org/ http://www.the-athenaeum.org/. Hoping to add more paintings in the future.
- fidotron 13y ago
  That's a great data source. I'd previously tried this with freebase data, but it's nothing like comprehensive enough when it comes down to individual artworks. Still, nicely done.
  - pzaich 13y ago
    Very cool. I didn't know that freebase existed. The next best source may be some of the sites that have poster prints of art.
    - fidotron 13y ago
      I'd recommend having a look at dbpedia as well - that was better for less structured data than in freebase for my tests. Freebase has great structured data about art movements though, which is likely to be more useful.
- toyg 13y ago
  I wish there was an option to see all artists or all paintings near me. As it is, I have to know in advance what I'm looking for. Nice work anyway.
  - pzaich 13y ago
    I thought about setting that as the default view but would need HTML5 location approval. What were you thinking would be a good call-to-action?
    - erichurkman 13y ago
      It could be in the header, using the same iconography as map apps do for "find my current location": crosshair & circle [1]. [1] http://fontawesome.io/icon/crosshairs/ http://fontawesome.io/icon/crosshairs/
- a_olt 13y ago
  What about the paintings data? Where do you obtain it from? EDIT: I see the-athenaeum provides that information as well. Do you have a plan to keep up to date with the changes in locations?
dlr720 13y ago
Nice! Didn't know about leaflet.js, and happy I now do! Very fast results BTW.
mshankla 13y ago
Very Cool! I'm going to fiddle with leaflet this weekend
pcharles 13y ago
cool
Doctor_Fegg 13y ago
That's great. Fun idea and good execution - well done. Quick note (sorry to be the grouch): you're using OpenStreetMap map data, so you need to give OSM an on-screen credit. Not much to ask for the best source of map data in the world. :) Details: http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
KMBredt 13y ago
I'm no fan of the idea. The parsed source is outdated and probably will be forever because it's crowd-sourced and can't keep up with changing exhibitions and lendings of paintings, which is a common thing. The use case where I check my phone to find a painting or an artist near me also seems far fetched. A better scenario would be to have a map with museums near me and up-to-date information what they currently exhibit. You would need better sources for that. On the technical side it's quite slow at the moment but the blown up thumbnails (where the Athenaeum also had thumbnails for fair use reasons but in a better quality) were not nice. I would keep them in their original ratio. I assume that this was probably more an excercise to test-drive some new tech.
- alcari 13y ago
  > I'm no fan of the idea. It sounds like you're actually not a fan of this implementation, not of the idea of a map of paintings. Would you still be opposed to it if the data was always accurate, the previews were larger, and the site was more responsive?
- pzaich 13y ago
  Valid points. There's a lot of hard work that would need to be done to make a really accurate data set. Sorry for the performance issues. The sites a little overwhelmed wih traffic right now.
- jayshahtx 13y ago
  Ouch, can't no respect? Wish people like you would learn a little decency and tact. No need to shit on someone's work
jesusx 13y ago
Nice job, put a like and tweet button!
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  No, please don't.
jameszhang 13y ago
Nice work. I wonder how this art map compares with what the guys over at http://artsy.net/ http://artsy.net/.
mertd 13y ago
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC appears to be a few blocks off.
jacob019 13y ago
just what I need to plan my next heist :-D
brianbreslin 13y ago
São Paulo has a great mapping/index of graffiti art. Might be of interest to you. Related to this http://jungledrumsonline.com/articles/travel-articles/take-the-graffiti-tour-of-sao-paulo/ http://jungledrumsonline.com/articles/travel-articles/take-t.... I couldn't find the database link
kyro 13y ago
I couldn't help but think of The Monuments Men movie that's coming out in February. If you wanted this to get some more publicity, I'm sure you could rebrand/position this in some way to ride that film's wave. Maybe something like "Be a Monument Man, and find art around the world!"
minussohn 13y ago
Super, I love it!

70 points by pzaich 13y ago

Rails, leaflet.js. I parsed the museum locations from http://www.the-athenaeum.org/ http://www.the-athenaeum.org/. Hoping to add more paintings in the future.

fidotron 13y ago
That's a great data source. I'd previously tried this with freebase data, but it's nothing like comprehensive enough when it comes down to individual artworks. Still, nicely done.
- pzaich 13y ago
  Very cool. I didn't know that freebase existed. The next best source may be some of the sites that have poster prints of art.
  - fidotron 13y ago
    I'd recommend having a look at dbpedia as well - that was better for less structured data than in freebase for my tests. Freebase has great structured data about art movements though, which is likely to be more useful.
toyg 13y ago
I wish there was an option to see all artists or all paintings near me. As it is, I have to know in advance what I'm looking for. Nice work anyway.
- pzaich 13y ago
  I thought about setting that as the default view but would need HTML5 location approval. What were you thinking would be a good call-to-action?
  - erichurkman 13y ago
    It could be in the header, using the same iconography as map apps do for "find my current location": crosshair & circle [1]. [1] http://fontawesome.io/icon/crosshairs/ http://fontawesome.io/icon/crosshairs/
a_olt 13y ago
What about the paintings data? Where do you obtain it from? EDIT: I see the-athenaeum provides that information as well. Do you have a plan to keep up to date with the changes in locations?

dlr720 13y ago

Nice! Didn't know about leaflet.js, and happy I now do! Very fast results BTW.

mshankla 13y ago

Very Cool! I'm going to fiddle with leaflet this weekend

pcharles 13y ago

cool

Doctor_Fegg 13y ago

That's great. Fun idea and good execution - well done. Quick note (sorry to be the grouch): you're using OpenStreetMap map data, so you need to give OSM an on-screen credit. Not much to ask for the best source of map data in the world. :) Details: http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

KMBredt 13y ago

I'm no fan of the idea. The parsed source is outdated and probably will be forever because it's crowd-sourced and can't keep up with changing exhibitions and lendings of paintings, which is a common thing. The use case where I check my phone to find a painting or an artist near me also seems far fetched. A better scenario would be to have a map with museums near me and up-to-date information what they currently exhibit. You would need better sources for that. On the technical side it's quite slow at the moment but the blown up thumbnails (where the Athenaeum also had thumbnails for fair use reasons but in a better quality) were not nice. I would keep them in their original ratio. I assume that this was probably more an excercise to test-drive some new tech.

alcari 13y ago
> I'm no fan of the idea. It sounds like you're actually not a fan of this implementation, not of the idea of a map of paintings. Would you still be opposed to it if the data was always accurate, the previews were larger, and the site was more responsive?
pzaich 13y ago
Valid points. There's a lot of hard work that would need to be done to make a really accurate data set. Sorry for the performance issues. The sites a little overwhelmed wih traffic right now.
jayshahtx 13y ago
Ouch, can't no respect? Wish people like you would learn a little decency and tact. No need to shit on someone's work

jesusx 13y ago

Nice job, put a like and tweet button!

jamesbritt 13y ago
No, please don't.

jameszhang 13y ago

Nice work. I wonder how this art map compares with what the guys over at http://artsy.net/ http://artsy.net/.

mertd 13y ago

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC appears to be a few blocks off.

jacob019 13y ago

just what I need to plan my next heist :-D

brianbreslin 13y ago

São Paulo has a great mapping/index of graffiti art. Might be of interest to you. Related to this http://jungledrumsonline.com/articles/travel-articles/take-the-graffiti-tour-of-sao-paulo/ http://jungledrumsonline.com/articles/travel-articles/take-t.... I couldn't find the database link

kyro 13y ago

I couldn't help but think of The Monuments Men movie that's coming out in February. If you wanted this to get some more publicity, I'm sure you could rebrand/position this in some way to ride that film's wave. Maybe something like "Be a Monument Man, and find art around the world!"

minussohn 13y ago

Super, I love it!