Have you seen it yet? If not "it," then perhaps you've caught the t.v. commercial for the new iPad 3, touting its amazing "Retina display." The ad includes an image for what I can only guess is a touch-screen, picture paint app, shown below.
Apple's recent ad struck me, not only because it mainstreams the notion that anyone (with the right technology) can make a painting, but also because of the narrator's closing statement alluding to the idea that now, because of a device with a screen "this good," you are suddenly able to capture "the things you care about." While I have long been a supporter of the concept that there is an artist within each of us, this kind of blanket assertion causes me cringe to a bit. Were we somehow previously not able to understand what we care about? I care that it often takes years of hard work for visual artists to hone their craft, and that looking at a two- or three-dimensional work of art is a completely different experience from seeing--and even touch-creating--a one-dimensional digital image.
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| Tom Coates, Monday, Wash Day, oil on canvas, photo by Darrell Kincer |
2 comments:
I also agree with the large assumption of "finally being able to express myself because of this device." Just a little arrogant.
But I also think that the commercial is a tongue-in-cheek dig at a similar digital device where you see two people drawing a fish with a stylus. It's as though art on the iPad is much more sophisticated than their competitors.
When I read and viewed this, I couldn't help but think of David Hockney's bit on iPhone art. He proclaims that using the device allows him, as a visual artist and an amazing painter at that, to be more productive. Could that be a motivation here?
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