Save the Murals

The BBC reports on a design student who’s been documenting Belfast’s political murals and making mashups of his own with the digital images. But since the murals are often repainted, it turns out that he’s been creating an archive of this urban art:

Liam Moore, a design student attending the University of Ulster, has developed a special interest this public art. “They’re pretty inspirational,” he told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme. “There are lots of topics and themes. […] If you think about the murals too, it’s a big creative expression of sometimes political opinions and undertones. Especially from other cultures. A lot of residents feel they can connect to other divided nations, such as Israel and Palestine.”

Liam has been documenting the murals for a number of years, using digital technologies to capture and conserve them. Since the murals often change or are painted over, his work has been about keeping a record. Making use of digital cameras has made it easier to preserve and share these works with the wider world.