The iPhone is a unique tool that allows artists to create a wide range of work with a single device. The iPhone's common interface and powerful tools have allowed application developers to create tools for making music, illustration, photos, videos and more. New apps like Brushes, Ocarina, Tilt Shift, and iStop Motion allow users to paint, photograph, animate and share their creations with their fellow users.
While these programs imitate the physical act of drawing, painting, and making music, the work created has a unique, almost primitive quality. The small screen size, lack of external controls such as a mouse or keyboard allows for different kinds of effects from more powerful programs like Illustrator or Photoshop.
The work that is generated by these applications has attracted attention from critics, established artists, and respected publications. For example, an illustration created by George Colombo with the painting application Brushes, was published as the cover of the June 1st 2009 edition of The New Yorker.
Art galleries are now featuring works made on iPhones. For example, next week, the Giorogi Gallery in Berkeley, California will display photos taken on the iPhone. The show assembles work from established and amateur photographers who all submitted pictures created with a photo sharing application.
Some artists are even creating applications as artworks in and of themselves. Last year, Armin Heinrich created the application called, “I Am Rich”. The application was priced at $999 and presented the user with the image of a flashing red gem. Responding to complaints, Apple pulled the artwork from its App Store.
Last year Brian Eno and software designer Peter Chilvers released Bloom, an music iPhone application. This program is half instrument and half art. It allows the users to create and listen to progressively complicated music sequences. While the music plays a minimal animation flickers on the screen, which reflects the tempo of the music being played. When the user want to change the song, he or she shakes the iPhone to starts a new session.
iPhone applications have extended the hands of artists allowing them to expand their networks for distribution, aid communication and create new mediums for projects. While it is sometimes hard to draw the line betweeen what is or isn’t art, it safe to say that that the possibility to create new and different art work had greatly expand as a result of its invention.
Related Links
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2009/05/jorge-colombo-iphone-cover.html
http://gizmodo.com/5034701/confirmed-eight-morons-bought-the-999-i-am-rich-iphone-application
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/opinion/16tue4.html?scp=1&sq=Veblen%20&st=cse
http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/take-five-an-exhibit-of-iphone-photos-and-a-bhangra-dance-party/?pagemode=print&scp=2&sq=Giorgi%20Gallery%20in%20Berkeley%20California%20will%20display%20photos%20taken%20by%20the%20iPhone.&st=cse
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