What do the r/place Atlas projects document?

The r/place Atlas projects document the pixel art and community creations that appeared on Reddit's r/place canvases. They annotate each artwork with information about what it depicts, who made it, and the stories behind it, creating a historical record of these collaborative events. The Place Atlas Initiative hosts Atlases for the 2017, 2022, and 2023 r/place events, along with related archival projects.

What the Atlases actually record

Each Atlas is an interactive map layered over a snapshot of an r/place canvas. Rather than just preserving the raw image, the Atlas adds context that the pixels alone can't convey:

• Artwork identification – what each drawing or logo represents
• Attribution – which communities, subreddits, or groups created it
• Descriptions – background on the design, its meaning, or the coordination behind it
• Positional data – where on the canvas each piece was placed

This turns a static image into a browsable, searchable archive of community effort.

Coverage across r/place events

The Initiative maintains Atlases for multiple editions of r/place:

A legacy version of the 2017 Atlas also exists as an affiliated project, reflecting how the documentation effort has evolved over time.

Why these projects exist

r/place canvases are temporary. Once an event ends, the collaborative artwork is no longer live, and without documentation the context — who built what and why — is easily lost. The Atlas projects exist to preserve that history, guided by the Initiative's stated principle of "Documenting as it is, not as we want." The goal is an accurate record of what communities actually created, not an idealized version.

Affiliated and related projects

Beyond the main Atlases, the Initiative lists affiliated efforts that support the same archival mission:

• The 2017 r/place Atlas (legacy) – the earlier version of the 2017 documentation
• The Final Clean – a related archival project
• The 2022 r/place Catalog – a catalog tied to the 2022 event

These complement the Atlases by capturing additional angles on the same events.

Who runs it

The Place Atlas Initiative is organized by a project leader, TCOOfficiall (Stefano Haagmans), supported by archival, development, and wiki teams. Contributors include AnonymousRandPerson, Hans5958, Aeywoo, and others listed across the Initiative's team sections. The site itself is maintained through a public repository.

If you want to explore a specific r/place year or look up a particular artwork, start with the Atlas for that event and use its map interface to browse annotated regions.