This Digital Street Art Project Puts the Fun Back on the Internet, One Pixel at a Time - See for Yourself

Do you want to leave an artistic mark on your city without breaking the law? Now is your chance. Wplace is a collaborative art project that allows you to color one pixel anywhere on the world map every 30 seconds. Despite its novelty, it has gained widespread popularity, as you can find artworks, competing groups, and creative alliances all over the world.

If you're a fan of the annual r/place experiment on Reddit - which is a collaborative art project and a unique social experiment - then there's good news for you: the experience is back in a new form on Wplace. Like r/place, Wplace allows you to participate in coloring pixels on a giant canvas to create a collective image, but this time, the canvas is the entire world map.

The site first appeared last month, but it's experiencing massive growth, and now the map is filled with digital murals everywhere. Much of this digital art focuses on internet culture, but there's also a surprising amount of original and creative artwork. Naturally, competition between different fan groups has led to virtual land wars, while alliances have formed to protect certain areas, and new artworks appear in the most unexpected places.

For those unfamiliar, Digital Street Art is an art form that uses digital technologies to create artworks in public spaces, thus transcending physical walls. This type of art relies on techniques such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and projection mapping, giving artists the freedom to express themselves and transcend traditional limitations. Wplace can be considered a modern example of this concept, where the digital space becomes the "street" that hosts these artworks. You can learn more about this artistic trend through an article published by "It's Nice That".

If you're interested in joining this creative fun or just exploring what others are creating, here's everything you need to know.

How Does Wplace Work?

To join, head to https://wplace.live. You'll need to sign in with a Google or Twitch account to participate. The site hosts a global map that you can freely zoom, pan, and scroll through. You have the ability to move the map anywhere in the world or click a button to jump directly to your current location. Every 30 seconds, you can color only one pixel, which will be visible to everyone. Wplace says the entire map contains over 4 trillion pixels.

If you want to make Wplace a collaborative project, you can join an existing alliance or create your own to plan and execute your artwork in cooperation with others.

When I entered my neighborhood on the map, I had to zoom out significantly to see any pixel art. The nearest artwork, a Pokémon character, was about 15 miles away. As I scrolled, I noticed more artworks. They were mostly cartoon characters, but I found a cool representation of my local baseball team's logo right at their stadium's location.

When I moved to a nearby major city, the map became more crowded with characters, memes, team logos, and some inappropriate phrases. It was fun to see artworks that were sometimes simple and other times quite impressive. And as you can imagine, the map is constantly changing. If there's a coordinated effort, an artwork can appear very quickly.

Rules for Participating in Wplace

Wplace has some rules. You are not allowed to draw over other artworks with random colors or patterns just to spoil them, but you can draw over them to complement them or to create an entirely new drawing.

Additionally, there are clear prohibitions:

• You cannot create paintings associated with hate groups or adult content.
• It is forbidden to disclose anyone's personal information.
• It is prohibited to create with more than one account or use bots.
• It is forbidden to insult political party flags or images of politicians (although when scrolling over a political hotspot like Washington D.C., I'm not sure how strictly this last rule is enforced).

You don't have to spend any money to join Wplace, but there are optional microtransactions to purchase more features that enhance your experience.