App Art
April 30, 2013 7:12 AM Subscribe
Invisible Hieroglyphics: iPad screen smudges as art.
I try not to be the person saying "I don't think that is a thing that is art," but ... this is an exceptionally hard one for me to see. I embrace my status as a philistine.
posted by Linda_Holmes at 7:24 AM on April 30, 2013
posted by Linda_Holmes at 7:24 AM on April 30, 2013
I just have a really hard time seeing those as anything but dirt. (I wear glasses, so I don't like smudges at all. I'm also the first person to clean any windows at home.)
posted by Michael Roberts at 8:36 AM on April 30, 2013
posted by Michael Roberts at 8:36 AM on April 30, 2013
I try not to be the person saying "I don't think that is a thing that is art," but ... this is an exceptionally hard one for me to see.
Really? I think it's actually kind of surprisingly clever — it hinges on the visual pun between the brushstroke, the basic unit of artistic intention in old-fashioned painterly Art-with-a-capital-A, and the omnipresent finger-smudges that are all of our unconscious, unintentional traces. I mean, any iPad user has noticed the ghost keyboard we leave behind on the screen, but this goes (at least a smidge) further than that in rendering all that finger-grease into something gesturally interesting. It's not the deepest thing in the world but I think the little twist this puts on a seemingly disposable aspect of digital life is worthy of the name.
posted by RogerB at 8:48 AM on April 30, 2013 [5 favorites]
Really? I think it's actually kind of surprisingly clever — it hinges on the visual pun between the brushstroke, the basic unit of artistic intention in old-fashioned painterly Art-with-a-capital-A, and the omnipresent finger-smudges that are all of our unconscious, unintentional traces. I mean, any iPad user has noticed the ghost keyboard we leave behind on the screen, but this goes (at least a smidge) further than that in rendering all that finger-grease into something gesturally interesting. It's not the deepest thing in the world but I think the little twist this puts on a seemingly disposable aspect of digital life is worthy of the name.
posted by RogerB at 8:48 AM on April 30, 2013 [5 favorites]
I try not to be the person saying, "lots of people seem to be less interested in digesting art than being proud of their unwillingness to do so, " but this is an exceptionally pervasive derail.
I like it. It reminds me of looking at the wear patterns on someone's guitar or trying to figure out what somebody does by looking at their fingernails.
posted by cmoj at 10:11 AM on April 30, 2013
I like it. It reminds me of looking at the wear patterns on someone's guitar or trying to figure out what somebody does by looking at their fingernails.
posted by cmoj at 10:11 AM on April 30, 2013
Fingerprint smudges on aluminosilicate glass = art? Doesn't work for me. Just makes me want to wipe it clean.
posted by Rashomon at 1:23 PM on April 30, 2013
posted by Rashomon at 1:23 PM on April 30, 2013
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posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:15 AM on April 30, 2013