TWEET CATHEDRAL

Tweet Cathedral (2011) is an earthquake remembrance artwork created from Twitter messages with the hashtag #eqnz (earth quake new zealand). Inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night it was created by artist Jeroen van der Most after an earthquake that struck the New Zealand town Christchurch. It was exhibited at a TedX conference to inspire the town’s rebuilding and displayed in the city’s church. It's now part of the collection of New Zealand's national historic museum Te Papa.

Jeroen van der Most's Twitter paintings attracted a global wave of media attention ranging from trend blogs like trendwatching.com to coverage by Spain's largest newspaper El Pais. The paintings were created using algorithms and Twitter data. Sometimes in combination with traditional painting. The overwhelming reach and success of the paintings firmed Van der Most’s belief in the power of data, technology, and social media.