Urban Chameleon

Urban Chameleon – Graffiti as Cultural Heritage

The Urban Chameleon project was developed to create an intuitive and interactive platform that enables users to explore and analyse graffiti in its spatial and temporal context. The project aimed to preserve graffiti as cultural heritage, making it accessible to researchers, artists, and the general public. The platform was built with a focus on the ever-changing and ephemeral nature of graffiti, allowing users to examine the evolution of graffiti works along the Danube Canal in Vienna, Austria.

Objectives

The primary objectives of Urban Chameleon were to:

Create a user-friendly platform for researchers and artists to explore graffiti in its urban context.
Develop a system to preserve graffiti as part of cultural heritage, capturing its temporary nature and presenting it for future studies.
Provide an interactive tool that allows users to engage with graffiti works, understanding their spatial, temporal, and cultural relevance.
Ensure the platform could serve both academic researchers and the general public, catering to various needs.

Challenges

The project faced several significant challenges:

Ephemerality of Graffiti: Graffiti is often short-lived, making its preservation difficult. Capturing these temporary works of art while maintaining a dynamic, up-to-date system was essential.
Complexity of Metadata: Creating a metadata schema that balances the need for research-grade data while still being user-friendly was a challenge. This balance was key to making the platform both academically robust and accessible.
Performance: The project needed to handle large datasets and high-resolution surface models while maintaining smooth performance across various devices.

Fig. 1: AGIL workflow process of the creation of the Urban Chameleon website

Target Group & Pain Points

The Urban Chameleon platform was designed to cater to a diverse set of users, each with specific needs and pain points:

Researchers: Needed a tool to efficiently query graffiti metadata, including details on location, temporal changes, and creator information, without overwhelming the system.
Graffitists: Required a platform that accurately represented their work and intentions, preserving the ephemeral nature of their art while allowing for virtual engagement.
Cultural Heritage Professionals: Needed tools to document, preserve, and analyse graffiti within a broader urban and cultural context.
General Public: Required a visually engaging and intuitive platform that allowed them to explore graffiti along the Danube Canal without technical complexities.

Fig. 2: Process of getting the research done for the Urban Chameleon website

Tools & Development

The project was completed over a two-month intensive period, using a range of modern web development tools:

Framework: Next.js 13+ for server-side rendering and React components.
Styling: SCSS for custom styling and design consistency.
Language: TypeScript for type safety and codebase maintainability.
Design: Figma for wireframing and prototyping, Miro for collaborative design discussions.
Data Modelling: OpenAtlas for managing archaeological data and Resium/CesiumJS for 3D visualisation.

Fig. 3: Wireframe of the Urban Chameleon website