Apps for art's sake

Abstract

The paper reports on the growing phenomena of art-making on mobile devices and contributes findings from two studies of artists' responses to iPad painting apps: the first is a series of exploratory workshops where artists were recruited to engage with a range of art apps, the second is a series of in-depth interviews with two artists who had incorporated the device and Brushes app into their painting practice over a period of months and years. The artists in both studies generally agreed that the devices and apps were easy to use and enjoyable but remained ambivalent about the technologies and outcomes. Although there was excitement around new creative possibilities there were also tensions around the status of the work being produced. The paper reflects on the role of popular digital production apparatus and information exchange on the constitution of artist-identities at a time of rapid techno-cultural change. It argues that while tablet computing and art apps have democratized certain artistic processes these technologies have generated conflict with traditional conceptions of art and curation.

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