Painting the streets with the web in Indonesia

People around the world are using the web as a platform to both showcase and create amazing local culture. In the last six months, Chrome has played host to some of Indonesia’s finest up-and-coming artistic talent with the Chrome Open Spaces project.

From old masters like Basuki to contemporary street artists like Darbotz, Indonesia has a long and rich history of art. The rapidly growing population and economy has led to densified urban spaces, crazy traffic and the rise of Indonesian street art. The Chrome Open Spaces project used the web to bring all these elements together.

Designed to showcase the creativity possible with modern web technologies, Chrome Open Spaces called on aspiring artists from across the archipelago to submit drawings via a custom-designed app. The app enabled people to create ‘street art’ online using digital spray paints, brushes and stencils. Over 12,000 drawings were submitted and 11,000 votes were cast. From these virtual paintings, nine winners were chosen to have their creations showcased on buildings and walls across Jakarta and Bandung.

You can check out how their digital creations came to life on the streets and meet the local artists here:

We built Chrome to help drive innovation on the web. Projects like Chrome Open Spaces highlight how technologies that Chrome pioneered, such as HTML5, can be used to showcase local culture and innovation, and also take you to amazing places — both online and offline.

Posted by Krishna Zulkarnain, Country Marketing Manager Indonesia