Channel 4 launch “Big Art Mob” mobile blogging website.

Channel 4 is to launch a mobile blogging website with the aim of creating the UK’s first comprehensive map of public art.

The “Big Art Mob” aims to build the resource before next year’s Big Art Project TV series by inviting people to use their mobile phones to send in photos, text, video and audio to do with any public art form.

Users upload images with the name of the artist and the artwork (if they know) as well as the location. Visitors to the site can also add and edit tags to help complete any missing information.

It will be up to the public to decide what ‘art’ is – whether things like graffiti count – and should make for an interesting collection.

Adam Gee, Channel 4’s commissioning editor, New Media, says: “There’s no comprehensive map of the UK’s public art, simply because there’s so much of it. But now, with a combination of networked media and people power, for the first time, it’s an achievable public challenge. As well as documenting the richness and diversity of our public art, the Big Art Mob will highlight the fun of moblogging and provide the base for a lively, visually-oriented, UK-centred arts community.’

The new project uses moblogUK technology, who already run Europe’s leading moblogging community site.