A cool little app that found its way to us is Streetheart, built as a side project by Arvid Janson, the co-founder of Stockholm’s Hoa’s Tool Shop. The app helps document and explore the street art scene anywhere in the world an iPhone’s camera and location-based features.
“I like connecting online to offline, which is why one of the most important features – to me – of the app is the possibility to place the photos on a map. One part of this is obviously due to the inherent fragility of the format, to document what has been, but to me it’s more about giving people another way of looking at their cities,” says Janson.
Even though the app is available in the app store, Janson considers it a very public beta. Still, the app looks polished and does its job connecting you to street art across the world. Users can post and browse shots of street art globally or based on their location. There’s also a liking feature, which lets users find popular spots. Right now there’s no commenting, but the users Janson talked to don’t really see the need for them.
The app uses a Facebook login (with Twitter coming soon), which seems to angle the app away from artists posting their own work. I like this concept though, it shies away from self-promotion, and rather has users sharing what they’ve discovered in their cities.
Janson says right now he’s not sure how he would monetize the platform, but it’s surely on his mind. This summer he’s bringing in a friend to help out with the marketing and other parts of the “soft values” of the platform. Currently most of the traction has come out of Stockholm, although street art has been tagged all over Europe.
“I want people to be able to explore their cities, to be able to find things they never knew were there, to take another way home from work. Our cities are full of things that are just waiting to be discovered, and hopefully Streetheart can play an important part of this.”
The app can be found on iTunes, here.
