Mobile, Smart & Cell Phone Digital Art Making

Mobile, Smart & Cell Phone Digital Art Making

**This post has been adapted for two other course websites where experimentation is being conducted: art642.com & Net-Art on the CUNY Academic Commons

Its no secret that there is a ton of potential in mobile/smart phone art making. In fact, you might be a little late to the party! (Im kidding, its never to late to join in) There are literally tons and tons of apps that are both practical, fun and objective, however, I think that the true potential in the medium is hidden in the cross testing of multiple apps combined. After that, the beauty and further discovery is in synthesizing them together for your creative output. I know, that sounds ambitious, especially if you are new to the mobile/smart phone art making game.

The output may be a series of still frames that work together as a sequence or a series dedicated to style that you create. The output may be a series of subtle animations in the form of GIFs or micro videos (Instagram will loop them for you today). Either way, the use of visuals are more present than ever in almost all of the media that we consume. This stretches from all forms of digital and static advertising, news feeds upon news feeds and interactive media that is user based and customizable. This includes academic publications and pedagogy. Yes, thats right, , if you think that academia wont be effected by the how the media and main stream advertising plays a roll in our lives, watch what happens over the next 2-3 years.

This week is about experimentation and redefining how you perceive your device, lets get acquainted with some of the apps by visiting the links below. Some apps as we know offer a free version for the sake of testing the app. There is quite a bit that can be done today with options to both take screen-shots of still images and also capture screen-recording for creating short animations. I have a few favorites for sure and have tested the apps listed below. Make purchases only at your discretion. Lets dig in.

Where will you post your experimentation? Instagram? Twitter? Facebook? Reddit? Flickr? Tumblr, Vero? Your personal website?

**You may want to free up some space on your device before you begin. Applications take up space, and so does the work that you will create.

Mobile Apps:

Glitche’ – glitche.com

to.be camera – to.be/camera

Giphy Cam – https://giphy.com/apps

Instagram – http://Instagram.com

VHS CAM – http://rarevision.com/vhscam

Assembly Design App – http://assemblyapp.co

ImgPlay – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imgplay-gif-maker/id989843523?mt=8

Imaengine – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imaengine-vector/id599309610?mt=8

Ultra-Pop

Ultra-Pop -Infinite

GifVid (simple tool to covert GIF to Video, Video to GIF on the phone)

Glitch Wizard

iColorama S rich featured image editor that maintains full resolution of images

Decim8 – Glitch

http://royb0t.net/tagged/iOSartApps

ImgPlay – Awesome GIF maker!

Back Eraser – Great to remove background areas and make layers.

Building Resources from the Web –

Here are some websites, artists & interviews dedicated to Art making via cell phones and mobile devices. They range from old and outdated to new and very cutting edge. We will build this resource as our class evolves.

http://phonearts.net/

Casey Kauffmann’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/uncannysfvalley/
Interview with Casey Kauffman

Karen Divine

https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/first-look-brushes-1

Michael Manning