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Street art in the library: Transforming spray paint into a digital archive and virtual reality experience
Journal of Digital Media Management,
7
(3),
279-291
(2019)
Abstract
This paper discusses The University of Nevada, Reno Libraries and Digital Media Technology Department’s partnering with an art historian, local art organisations and Reno street artists to create an online archive, exhibit and virtual reality (VR) experience highlighting the explosion of urban street art in Reno. The Libraries assembled a team that photographed the art using traditional two-dimensional digital cameras, and captured 360 VR footage of the art and of several artists creating interior and exterior murals. The team conducted on-camera interviews with prominent street artists in Reno; collected permission forms; generated metadata; and initially preserved the images and created an archive using CatDV, the Libraries’ media asset management system. The content was made available in the Libraries’ new Islandora installation in July 2018. In addition, a community-wide event was held during Reno’s annual summer art festival, Reno Artown, in which artists were invited to create art in VR in front of a crowd, and the archive and VR experience were demonstrated. By providing an archive that is accessible to students and community members, the Libraries supports scholarly research in urban street art and creates ties with local communities.
Keywords: street art; virtual reality; community outreach; digital archive
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Amy J. Hunsaker is the Fine & Performing Arts Librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), where she serves faculty, students and staff in the School of the Arts, specifically the Art, Music and Dance and Theatre departments. She began her professional career managing and creating digital collections and served as the Digital Initiatives Librarian for four years at UNR. Previously a professional musician, she holds a doctor of musical arts degree. She is the Northern Nevada representative for the Digital Public Library of America, and works closely with faculty and librarians to support digital humanities projects and technology in the arts.
Laura Rocke is the Digital Humanities Specialist for the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries, where she serves as the project lead for a variety of projects involving the digitisation and interactive curation of digital collections and exhibits using a variety of technologies and experiential online formats. She has also built and maintained some of the Libraries’ digital collections, which involves creating and editing/enhancing metadata for primary resources that comprise the digital collections. She has an MA in history from the University of Nevada, Reno.
