GAU
Wikimedia art selection
Project
I created a collection of Latin American artworks selected from Wikimedia, with alternative text generated by Gemini Flash 1.5.
The Idea
I took inspiration from @artbot, a Mastodon bot that publishes artworks from Wikimedia. I wanted to explore the same idea with a focus on artists and works from Latin American countries.
Branding
I named the project Galeria de Arte da URSAL as a play on the Mastodon instance’s name and a musical reference. I used a vibrant version of the instance’s red and arranged the initials in a square composition with the Barriecito typeface. The lowercase “g” evokes a mastodon silhouette.
Logos and font family.
Wikimedia
Because Wikimedia metadata varies in format and completeness, I manually selected images from categories associated with Latin American countries. I organized the initial selection in a spreadsheet with the following attributes:
- id
- created_at
- file_name
- attribution_url
- preferred_file_url
- artist
- title
- country
- date
- medium
- alt_text
- is_published
Gemini
I used Python and the Wikimedia API to enrich the metadata before downloading the images. I then processed each image with Gemini Flash 1.5 to generate its alternative text.
Supabase
I stored the data in a PostgreSQL table on Supabase to manage the collection, track publication status and serve content to the web application.
Web App
I made the collection available through a Nuxt application hosted on Netlify, with search and an interface built using Tailwind CSS and Headless UI components.
Desktop and mobile versions in dark and light themes.
Mastodon Bot
I configured a bot using GitHub Actions and the data API. I scheduled it to publish a random artwork every seven hours and mark it as published to avoid repeats.