BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's Saira Siddiqui’s first public project.

"I'm just very excited just for my own growth as an individual and as an emerging artist to be able to put this out in the world and have it be received so well," Saira Siddiqui said.

The project is called The Peace Dots Project. The goal is to have people mark the place where a random act of kindness, or any action that creates hope and makes a positive impact on a person’s life, occurred. At each live map installation, there are dot stickers of all different colors. A person can choose the color that they felt represented their act of kindness.

"So say something really awesome happened to me right at this corner of Genesee and Fillmore at MLK Park. And I felt like that color was purple. I would put a dot there, where ever it happened," Siddiqui said.

Then you take an index card and write down what the random act of kindness was, where and when it happened, what color represents the act and what emotion went along with it.

Saira does community and economic development and does data mapping from time to time.

"At one point I just thought 'why are we always mapping these negative things? Crime dots is the main example here. Why are we always mapping crime? How do we even find the peace dots? Like, where are all those peace dots?' " she said.

It took Saira a while to figure out how to get the data and show it visually. There’s also an online submission form so people from all over the world can take part. Saira says she’s had submissions from as far as Germany and the U.K.

"And when I started this, it was just an experiment to see whether it would even work, and it's great to know that it's working and I actually have data to use for the body of artwork that I'm developing," Siddiqui said.

The project began in 2021. Saira says it started before the massacre and the pandemic.

"It was really meant to try to shift that narrative again. Like it’s kind of a culture change and getting people to notice even the small things," Siddiqui said.

The dots on the map then are translated into an oil painting series.

"They’re all a little bit different, but this one is based on neighborhoods by the end of May. So this has all the submissions by the end of May. Then I categorized it based on the colors that people submitted. So all each of these rings represents a dot that someone submitted and a color that they shared and also the geographic location," Siddiqui said.

Saira says other pieces are more like a typical map.

"You’ll also see on that one the broken heart, so that was after Tops. It just kind of felt like I needed to put that there," Siddiqui said.

Saira estimates this project will take another year to complete.

"My big goal is actually do something with community members where they get to be a part of creating the art," Siddiqui said. "Maybe it's like a large-scale mural or just a large canvas of some sort where people can engage in it."

She hopes the project brings a new way of thinking about art creation.