I'll never forget watching the excellent Jodie Foster directed film Little Man Tate and hearing the boy's analysis of Vincent Van Gogh's painting 'Irises.' When asked why the Dutch impressionist master had painted just one white iris in a sea of blue ones, he said simply "because he was lonely" and that changed my whole perception of the painting and I fell in love with his art forever. Van Gogh Art Essentials for iOS brings art to the app store with this virtual museum of Vincent's work that contains hundreds of his masterpieces in high definition as well as detailed ... Read more
Finger Flair is one of those apps that serve little purpose other than for pure unadulterated fun. This bizarre but artistic mix of music, art and science is a trippy little animation app for iOS that lets you control all the visuals that you put on the screen with just your fingers. You create a bunch of very cool animations and turn it into wallpaper at the touch of a finger or two. Not only that but, as a truly mind blowing experience, you can add some of your own groovy music to play along with it. Finger Flair ... Read more
London is a very big city and on any given week there is something like 600 concerts to choose from featuring everything from Irish folk to top 40 to the very best classical orchestras in the world. There's also around 30 different theatrical performances playing not to mention the 11000 bars and restaurants at your disposal. So if you are a visitor to the 'Big Smoke,' as it used to be known, it's almost a full time job to research where to go. You could pick up a copy of Timeout and a bunch of other mags or log on ... Read more
Why is it that whenever I seem to look at a website with an art connection it underwhelms me? Maybe it's because it's put together by artists rather than professionals. Art Browse Management is a very professional art management application that stores your work in the cloud and give you access to your collection wherever you in the world where there is an Internet connection. Art Browse Management has been put together by TheWebStation, a very professional group that includes computer science experts, web programmers, graphic designers and e-marketers, who have been working with internet-related technologies since 1997. The ... Read more
In this mass produced world I think the time is right for a bespoke revolution. Original artists, musicians and video makers have been putting out their creative work since time immemorial but these days it's not the easiest thing to get your work out there and noticed by the general populace. Masspire is a new free application that provides a place where talented and artistic types can get the three things they need more than anything else - money to develop their art, exposure for their work and the freedom to pursue their creative bent. Only a handful of ... Read more
Draw Something Free is a draw and word game for Android, iPhone, iPad and IPod Touch that has turned into something of a phenomenon. Developed by Zynga, it's a hilarious and totally addictive game that owes a little to the word game Pictionary. Zynga's previous games include Farmville, Cityville and Words With Friends. When you see your friends staring at their smartphone screen for ages as they concentrate on drawing before bursting into laughter you'll have a pretty good idea that they are playing Draw Something Free. Here is, without doubt, the most popular free social drawing and guessing ... Read more
Potential! Vifinition Video Dictionary has heaps of it. This video sharing application takes video crowdsourcing in a slightly different direction by redefining the way we perceive words and phrases in our search mechanisms. Rather than relying solely on our tried and tested methods of the search engine, Vifinition turns the video search on its head by relying on the urban dictionary concept of finding interesting videos and adds a great element of fun to it, too. If I said the word fiasco to you - how would you define it as a piece of video art? Vifinition introduces a ... Read more
Without a doubt, Digital Acid is one of the weirdest apps for iPhone that I've come across so far. It's an art mashup video tool that features a bunch of supposedly hallucinagenic films accompanied by their own equally trippy soundtracks. The idea behind Digital Acid is that it's virtually a digital drugs image that works by playing the video and staring at the centre of the screen and then staring at your hand to get the desired hallucinogenic effect. I can hear you laughing now but...give it a try. Digital Acid claims to be an original hallucination inducing abstract ... Read more
Deco Sketch is a free, fun art application designed specifically for tablets (ipad2 specifically) that allows you to release your inner Jackson Pollock in cyber form. This glorious looking drawing tool gives you the opportunity to create the most beautiful looking abstract digital drawings that you can save and use as wallpaper or maybe use to decorate your new Facebook Timeline banner. Deco Sketch is a generative drawing application designed specifically for tablets. With a bit of practice and a bit of play and experimentation you can turn your blank screen into a thing of pure beauty. It gives ... Read more
I've had this great idea that I've been mulling over for the last few years to design and make sets of those cool retro flying ducks to hang on the kitchen wall like your grandparents used to have when you were a kid. But where do you sell them? On eBay? Create a Facebook page? Design a website for your product? All those things are good but really, the place you would be most likely to find flying ducks for sale would probably be the weekend market. Kraftwurx is kinda like an online market place where you can create and ... Read more